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Traditionally, residential youth care (RYC) in the Netherlands has been characterized by short-term placements, groups with relatively large numbers of youth (8– 12), often located on a campus with several RYC units. Recently, alternative RYC settings have been developed to create a home-like environment and promote stability. These alternative settings are characterized by long-term care, smaller groups (typically 6), and placements within the community. Examples of alternative RYC settings are home-like groups and family-style group homes (with livein professionals).
The authors aimed to…
This study reports results concerning close embodied practices, involving touch, in early childhood care settings in Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data—video recordings of everyday practices in contexts of childcare—were collected during various phases of the pandemic.
The study demonstrates a broad range of uses of touch, by adults and children themselves in various age groups and for various social purposes. Touch as embodied intimacy was initiated by educators, and by children, both within their peer group and towards educators.
Touch served the purposes of embodied…
Caring for a young child exposed to early trauma, along with caregiving stress and heightened by the impact of lockdowns as a result of the COVID-19 response, may compromise the development of the parent-child relationship. Understanding a foster carer's attachment history and considering relational dynamics through an attachment lens may shed light on areas they need support in, to enhance their parenting capacity for vulnerable children.
The feasibility of collecting and coding observational data and attachment interviews of foster carers and their children, when conducted remotely…
Norwegian youth in out-of-home care move three times as frequently as their peers. Such placement instability is linked to negative outcomes in terms of social attachment, well-being, educational achievements, health, and future opportunities. Norway implemented a new child welfare service reform in 2022 that increased the municipalities responsibilities for out-of-home care. The “incentive package” and “Barneløftet” were measures implemented to prepare the municipalities for these changes.
This study evaluates how the implemented measures affect the number of moves within out-of-home care…
This article explores how the monitoring of foster homes in Norway is experienced by children and youths who have been exposed to what they consider abusive behaviour by foster parents. Using a thematic narrative theoretical framework, the article shows that a common narrative in the youths’ accounts is a story of mistrust towards social workers and monitoring officers, which relates to a general mistrust towards the child welfare service.
The young individuals are reluctant to tell monitoring officers about how they truly experience their situation in their foster home. At the same time,…
This article aims to build knowledge, from a life-course perspective, of foster carers’ views of the transition from care to adulthood for young people with mental health problems by interviewing carers from foster homes in Norway and Sweden. The following research questions were addressed: How do mental health problems affect the care-leaving process and the linked lives between young people and foster carers? What impacts do young people’s mental health problems have on the timing of lives and social age when they leave a placement in care? The authors…
This is chapter 10 in the book "Child Welfare and the Value of Family Privacy".
Abstract:
Privacy is a central characteristic of the family, and while there are reasons to value family privacy, it is also regarded as an obstacle to justice in the family ethics literature. Because family life is protected from intervention by external agencies, parents’ resources and caregiving practices may have a profound impact on the child’s rights and opportunities. Given these considerations, the family may be an obstacle to equality of opportunity and the protection of children’s rights.…
This chapter in the book "Child Welfare and the Value of Family Privacy" addresses aims and challenges in the processes of including children and youth in foster families and suggests a solution inspired by anthropological literature. The author argues that the ‘best interests of the child’ are closely tied to staying in a stable foster home, which emerged in interviews with children in the Norwegian Child Welfare Services (CWS) and foster parents.
The author introduces anthropological approaches to kinship to discuss how successful foster care may be challenged by the cultural…
This is the first-ever National Kinship Care Strategy to be published in the UK. The strategy establishes “the foundations for a future, transformed kinship care system in England.”
The strategy includes the following commitments, amongst others:
- Launching a kinship financial allowance, paid at the same rate as the fostering allowance, beginning in up to 8 local authorities
- Expanding the Virtual School Head’s role
- Renaming the Adoption Support Fund to the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund
- New government guidance for employers on…
Abstract
Scholars largely agree that placements with relative caregivers are best for children. However, the regulations that jurisdictions apply to determine eligibility for foster care licensure may limit relative caregivers’ access to the benefits of licensure. This analysis considers foster care regulations in three jurisdictions and the effects of policy decisions on eligibility for relative caregivers and placement options for children in out-of-home care. Finland, New Zealand, and Wisconsin all have a stated priority for placement of children with relative caregivers.…