Displaying 1 - 10 of 11
Abstract
This paper addresses the conceptualization of ‘outcomes’ for care experienced people through an in-depth longitudinal study of 75 young adults in Denmark, England and Norway. ‘Outcome’ studies have played a crucial role in raising awareness of the risk of disadvantage that care experienced people face, across a variety of domains including education and employment. These studies may have an unintended consequence, however, if care experienced people are predominantly viewed, and studied, through a problem-focused lens. The danger is that policy and research neglects other –…
Abstract
This descriptive policy analysis examines the position of infants’ rights in the family service orientated child welfare systems of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden when being placed in out-of-home care. Its focus is on the contexts of, and legal procedures for, removing babies from home into public care. Children under the age of one year are taken into public care mainly through voluntary and emergency measures. Analysis of the development over a decade displays big intra-country differences in the prevalence of infant removal, varying from 2 per 1000 to 8 per 1000. The scant…
Abstract
This article explores how children living in foster care create senses of belonging across diverse family relationships. It draws on video diaries made by 11 Danish children living in foster care. For the analysis, we have selected two video diaries, made by two girls, aged 12 and 15 years, who live in foster care and have regular contact with their birth family. The girls differ in their senses of belonging but both reflectively negotiate this across their family relationships creating more or less emotional, physical and functional attachments with their foster care and birth…
Abstract
Most countries provide aftercare for foster care alumni either through specific targeted programs or by making foster care or related services available to the youth after they have aged out of foster care. Yet we have limited evidence of the effects of this type of care, especially from non-US contexts. My study tests whether an expansion of the Danish aftercare scheme in 2001 affects later outcomes of foster care alumni. This expansion raised the age limit for eligibility for aftercare from 20 years to 22 years, and created an increased focus on availability of this type of…
Abstract:
This working paper has reviewed cross-national datasets for the general population and available national data and other relevant (grey and academic) literature concerned with young people in care and care leavers in the three study countries. The aim is not evaluative; i.e. not to determine which country does ‘best’. Rather, the paper seeks to provide a situated understanding of the multi-dimensional complexity of transitions out of ‘care’ and of ‘outcomes’ for children and young people with experience of care, and hence to enable a contextualised understanding of the diver-sity…
Abstract
Not much research focuses on how parents perceive and experience child protection practice although the voices of service users are important in the development of social work within Child Welfare Services. This article contributes to a growing body of research that takes the user perspective as its point of departure when conducting research in social work. Drawing on a qualitative study, this article explores how 17 parents have experienced assessment processes in Denmark. Several studies indicate that parents who by themselves initiate child protection assessment have a greater…
Abstract:
The transition from care to independent life is difficult for former foster care youth. The experience of aging out of care may be troublesome and accentuate problems already experienced. The youth face a lot of setbacks and rejections during the transition, resulting in a high risk of unemployment and a low educational level. This is referred to as disappointing and/or an attainment gap. There is, however, still a lack of knowledge as to what creates these disappointing results and how the youth may overcome influences of their foster care history and their experiences while in…
In preparation for the Expert Meeting on Alternative Care and Family Support in the Baltic Sea Region - held in Tallinn, Estonia in May 2015 - the Children’s Unit in cooperation with the Expert Group for Cooperation on Children at Risk conducted a mapping of family support and alternative care services in the Baltic Sea Region Member States. The objective of this mapping was to analyse the situation, assess the achievements since the 2005 Ministerial Forum and to identify relevant opportunities and challenges for the future.
This report documents, assesses, and analyses the state of…
Government representatives, experts and professionals from the Baltic Sea Region including Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, the Russian Federation, Sweden and wider Europe gathered at a two-day expert meeting in Tallinn, Estonia and, together, endorsed a set of recommendations and action plan on alternative care and family support on 6 May 2015. This report provides an overview of the meeting and the presentations and discussions that took place on the topics of regional cooperation on alternative care, promoting quality care for children in the…
Article 7 of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) states that every child has “the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.” When a child is abandoned, this right is violated. Infants and young children are those most at risk of being abandoned There is a distinct lack of research in understanding the extent, causes, and consequences of child abandonment. Such studies are essential in order to develop effective prevention programs and strategies aimed at protecting children most vulnerable in the European society.
This comprehensive manual provides an overview of…