Displaying 31 - 40 of 244
This exploratory narrative case study delves into the life trajectories of two English-speaking adults age 50+ who spent over three years in youth protection-based congregate care and aged out of these services in Quebec, Canada. It examines how residential foster care alumni describe their life history and what insights they can provide regarding their transitions to adulthood and parenthood, and their placement experiences. Policy makers, clinicians, and researchers should observe that insights from adults over age 40 are underexamined, and these data point to complex interpersonal…
Abstract
This article presents findings from an exploratory in-depth qualitative research project with seventeen child welfare professionals exploring their permanency decisions with regards to Looked after Children. Thinking aloud-protocols and semi-structured interviews, in conjunction with a specifically constructed vignette were used to explore the permanency decisions of child welfare workers. Findings from this innovative research suggest that different decisions were taken by participants based on viewing the same vignette. However, even though the decisions differed, they clustered…
Child welfare service providers in the United States are increasingly acknowledging the importance of engaging youth with foster care experience in case planning, policy advocacy, and practice change. However, evidence for how to do this well is still quite limited. This study aims to answer two research questions: a) How do youth and staff/professionals define/conceptualize authentic youth engagement (AYE)? and b) What are youths’ and staff/professionals’ recommended strategies for authentically engaging youth? Thirty stakeholder interviews (15 youth, 15 staff/professionals) and 81 surveys (…
This report provides key recommendations from three roundtable discussions about how to support permanency with kin, relational permanency, and successful older youth adoption.
Deinstitutionalisation (DI) is essential for care reform for any country. The process of DI is implied in Ghana’s laws, policies, and guidelines on childcare. The absence of a DI practice model in Ghana contributes partly to the barriers to implementing the Care Reform Initiative (CRI). It is recorded in the mapping of Residential Homes for Children (RHC) in Ghana (2018), conducted by the Department of Social Welfare and UNICEF, that several closed homes reopen and operate because Social Welfare Officers (SWO) are unable to force closure without access to or knowledge of alternative care…
Abstract
Child welfare systems focus on achieving legal permanency within specific timeframes. Once a child has achieved legal permanency, there is an assumption that youth develop loving, lasting, and supportive relationships that are essential for successfully navigating adulthood. However, extant research suggests that legal permanency does not equate relational permanency, and little is known about the factors that help youth achieve it. This study uses grounded theory methods to generate a deeper understanding of the experiences that help youth achieve relational permanency,…
This bulletin provides information for child welfare professionals about the importance of permanency for youth and strategies for achieving it. Permanency efforts for youth should include both legal permanency (e.g., reunification, adoption, kinship care) and relational permanency (i.e., a relationship or connection with a caring adult, such as a relative, neighbor, service provider, teacher, or other important person in the youth's life). These adults may provide lifelong support that can help youth transition to adulthood and may even become a legal permanent option for the youth.
This report provides an insight into the Permanence and Care Excellence (‘PACE’) programme – a Quality Improvement programme underway from 2014-2020 which engaged with local authority partnerships in 27 of the 32 Scottish local authority areas. The programme was aimed at supporting local authority partnerships across Scotland to reduce permanence planning timescales for looked after infants, children and young people using a Quality Improvement framework.
This report sets out the fundamental ways in which the…
The Pathways of Care Longitudinal Study (POCLS) is the first large-scale prospective longitudinal study of children and young people in out-of-home care (OOHC) in Australia. Information on safety, permanency and wellbeing will be collected from various sources. The child developmental domains of interest are physical health, socio-emotional wellbeing and cognitive/learning ability.
ABSTRACT
This chapter from the Routledge Handbook of Family Law and Policy examines how permanency for children is achieved in New Zealand in the child protection context. The permanent removal of Maori children from their families and extended family groups, including placement for adoption, has been a profound issue for Maori. The concern for Maori about the numbers of children being taken into care was a driver for the July 2019 amendments. Unlike other jurisdictions (such as England and the US), adoption of children in permanency cases has generally not been followed in New Zealand…