Displaying 1 - 10 of 22
It is starting to be recognised that young people with mental health and/or intellectual disabilities making the transition to adulthood from out-of-home care require focused attention to understand their needs and service requirements. Within the UK jurisdiction of Northern Ireland (NI), young people with mental health and/or intellectual disabilities are over-represented in the population of care leavers and yet very little is known about their specific needs. The overall aim of the study reported here was to examine the profile of care leavers with mental health and/or intellectual…
Abstract
There is growing interest in the development of evidence supporting therapeutic interventions in social work. Few examples, however, exist, of the use of validated instrumentation in measuring the impact of services upon children and families. We report here on the use of a suite of validated instruments to measure the impact of services on children and their parents in receipt of services provided by an Irish Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) across their seven family centres. The NGO engaged a team of university-based researchers who provided training in the use of validated…
Abstract
The prospects for young people in care and care leavers in the worlds of education and work may often seem bleak. The challenges they face in education are widely covered in this book. In the world of work, the picture is also difficult for care leavers. Youth unemployment, generally, is a major challenge across the globe, with its risk greatest for marginalised groups such as care leavers. This conceptual chapter from the book Education in Out-of-Home Care…
Abstract
Research examining the low educational attainment of children in care and care leavers tends to under-use social theory (Berridge, 2007). To contribute to addressing this gap, we use life course theory to explore the role of agency in shaping the educational pathways of 18 Irish adults (aged 24–36 years) with care experience. Findings suggest that agency is a valuable conceptual tool for examining the nuance and complexity of how individual actions shape the education of care-experienced adults throughout the life course and interact with contextual and structural factors over…
Abstract
Research highlights the role of key actors and relationships in supporting the educational attainment and progress of children in care and care leavers. We know less about how relationships influence the educational journeys of people with care experience over timeand how to support the educational progress and engagement of adults with care experience. The principle of “linked lives” is central to the life course perspective referring to the interdependence of human lives throughout the life course. This paper explores how the principle of linked…
Abstract
Research highlights the role of key actors and relationships in supporting the educational attainment and progress of children in care and care leavers. We know less about how relationships influence the educational journeys of people with care experience over timeand how to support the educational progress and engagement of adults with care experience. The principle of “linked lives” is central to the life course perspective referring to the interdependence of human lives throughout the life course. This paper explores how the principle of linked…
Abstract
The low educational attainment of young people in care and leaving care has been well-established in a continually-growing body of international research. Existing research has identified some of the pathways taken by care leavers into further and higher education in the years after leaving care (i.e. ages 18–24), particularly among ‘high achieving’ care leavers. We know less however, about the longer-term pathways taken through education from the perspective of ‘older’ adults with care experience (i.e. those aged 25 and over). Guided by the life course principle of expected ‘…
Abstract
The focus of this collection is the promise of public health approaches to child protection and welfare systems development and delivery, and this chapter from the book Re-Visioning Public Health Approaches for Protecting Children is a case study of what such an approach looks like in practice. It is built on the experience of a programme of action developed in the Republic of Ireland – the Programme for Prevention, Partnership and Family Support (PPFS) – that brings together a constellation of strategies that align well with a public…
Abstract
The paper presents findings from a study of centre-based supervised child-parent contact. The purpose of the research was twofold; to ascertain the views and experiences of birth fathers on all aspects of the supervised child-parent contact they experienced in a centre; to find out from centre supervisors their views of engaging fathers and supervising contact, and from key stakeholders and referral agents (a community project worker, a child protection social worker, Guardian ad Litems, a family law solicitor) their perceptions of the supervised contact provision in the centre.…
Abstract
While there has been considerable policy attention given to educational disadvantage in the Irish context in recent years, evidence on the educational experiences, attainment, and progression of young people with experience of living in alternative care settings (e.g. foster care, residential care) remains limited. International literature suggests that young people with such ‘care-experience’ typically have lower attainment and progress to higher education at lower rates than their majority population peers. This brief paper focuses on one of these issues, the question of how…