Introduction: Caring performance, performing care

Children and Youth Services Review, 2017

Young people who live in residential care are at greater risk of experiencing sexual abuse and other forms of abuse than those living in other out of home care placements. To better understand how young people perceive and experience safety in residential care, and the things that they most need to be and feel safe, a qualitative study was conducted with 27 Australian children and young people for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. This paper describes young people's perspectives on what makes residential care safe: supportive relationships, stability and predictability, fair rules, and having some control over their environment. Young people said that safety could be improved with: better appreciation of the risks in residential care; better matching, staffing and oversight; and better-designed responses that involve young people themselves. The findings provide critical insights from young people themselves and argue that adults and institutions need to appreciate their views of safety so as to adequately respond. Given the prevalence of historical and present abuse in group care settings in many countries, our work group was unanimous in designating child

2011

2019

The term ‘social care’ emerged in both official and academic publications in England in the 1990s but has not been defined in legislation. How the phrase has varied in usage over the last 20 plus years is outlined in this article. Whilst the element of ‘personal care’ has been present in the range of descriptions of ‘social care’, the policy context has changed dramatically, affecting the broader debate about priorities in public support for vulnerable adults. What ‘social care’ means as a policy rather than a practice has changed over time. The notion of indeterminacy provides a plausible explanation of changes in terminology and meaning in policies and practices.

2000

This research provides the first detailed, evidence-based analysis of current policy and practice in relation to age disputes of children and young people seeking asylum in the UK. The specific aims of the research are: - To examine existing policy and practice in relation to age assessment by the Home Office, local authorities and others; - To examine the implications of age dispute issues and of a child being treated as an adult for the way in which the asylum application is assessed, including the information that is (and is not) taken into account in making the decision, vulnerability to and experience of detention, and the consequences of the decision, including actual and potential removal from the UK; - To examine the consequences of age dispute issues and of a child being treated as an adult for the provision of legal representation, education, housing, welfare and support to children, including any inconsistencies or differences between local authorities in their approaches to the issue of age dispute and the nature and extent of any provision made; - To identify any child protection issues which arise in age disputed cases as a result of detention, inappropriate accommodation provision by local authorities and the National Asylum Support Service (NASS) and lack of access to existing child protection mechanisms; - To consider the implications for children’s mental and emotional well-being of having their stated age disputed and the consequences for their personal and educational development; and - To develop concrete and practical policy recommendations on an appropriate process for agreeing age in the asylum context, and on the relationship between the process of age assessment, the asylum determination process and support and leaving care arrangements. It is hoped that the findings of the research will lead to reductions in the number of disputes, improvements in the assessment process, and the establishment of appropriate mechanisms for reviewing the assessment process without recourse to the courts.

International Journal of Mental Health and Capacity Law, 2014

The rights and interests of carers, and those in receipt of care, are related, directly and indirectly, in myriad, complex and contradictory ways. For example, poor pay and working conditions for carers is more likely than otherwise to lead to demotivated staff, with a corollary negative impact also on the rights and interests of those in receipt of care. Likewise, a carer working in good conditions for good pay is more likely than otherwise to provide a better quality of care. Sometimes, however, it is not the case that what is good for the care recipient is good for the care provider; and when decisions as to what constitutes the 'good' are made by third parties, such as governments, there is always the possibility that the balance between the rights and interests of the two groups will be inappropriately drawn. Of course, as long as there have been state-provided or-purchased services, there have been Inspectors, Boards of Control, Regulatory Codes and so on. But in these cautious and scandal-ridden times, the tendency of government is to push for further and greater regulation of care providers and individual carers. Legislation such as the Care Standards Act 2000, 2 introducing into the care of vulnerable adults mechanisms such as 'listing' those deemed unsuitable to work in the field, which had previously been used only to police the care given to children, provides an example of this tendency. So too does the new scheme, introduced by the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006, 3 which replaces both that in the CSA and the earlier regimes for the protection of children from care-related risks. The SVGA seeks to implement the central recommendation of the Bichard Report 4 into children protection measures, as well as vetting, information sharing and record keeping in Humberside in the wake of the murder of two young girls by Ian Huntley, employed as a caretaker at their primary school. The Report made a number of Recommendations 5 further to tighten the regulation of those who work with children. The government decided to utilise these recommendations to craft a new system which covers both those who work with children and those who work with vulnerable adults. 6 The SVGA, however, is focused on the regulation of the individual carer. It makes no substantive change to the regime for the regulation of care providers, in respect of whom the system currently found in the CSA continues to apply. Despite the significant changes that it introduced, the CSA also contains traces of earlier regimes, and in some respects seems increasingly outdated. An example is what is currently s. 20 of the CSA, enacting in virtually identical form s. 30 of the predecessor statute, the Registered Homes

2010

2014

This is the first in a new series of briefings from CELCIS that help to explain specific parts of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 (2014 Act). Each briefing will set out clearly the new rights and responsibilities of looked after children, care leavers and carers, and the new duties, powers and expectations placed on public bodies. This series has been conceived and designed to support organisations and practitioners involved in implementing the provisions of the 2014 Act. In this way we hope to fully realise the potential of this legislation to significantly improve care experiences for children and young people. Please note that official guidance will be published by the Scottish Government in due course. For commentary and analysis on the origins of the 2014 Act, the legislative process and accompanying debates, please see the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act section of the CELCIS website. Parts 10 and 11: Aftercare and Continuing Care This briefing examines the changes introduced to aftercare services by the 2014 Act. Taken together these changes constitute one of the most substantive reforms of the looked after children's sector seen in many years, increasing the population eligible for aftercare support and introducing a new obligation on local authorities to secure some care leavers in their looked after placement, or suitable alternative accommodation, up to their 21st birthday. The changes introduced by the Act reflect the principles of Staying Put Scotland (October 2013), guidance for local authorities and other corporate parents.

Child & Family Social Work, 2007

The extent to which young people are involved in legal decision-making depends on assumptions and perceptions about their ability to participate in decision-making in general. This paper draws on research with four young people, looking at their experiences of involvement in a variety of decision-making processes whilst in the care of the local authority. Through narratives, games and other activities, the thoughts and emotions of the four young people are explored, identifying the development of feelings of helplessness, low self-esteem and poor confidence that have followed the lack of opportunities made available to them to make decisions about their own lives. The efficacy and tension of corporate parenting is also explored with suggestions from the participants on how the care system could be constructed differently to facilitate their voice and that of much younger children than themselves. Thus, the debate becomes one of adult ability and preparedness to involve young people in decisions about their own lives, rather than whether they are able to participate effectively.

2010

Somebody should have asked me...' Young people in care and information-sharing practice. Information sharing is an essential element of integrated working, because otherwise children and young people's stories have to be told over and over again and their support needs can go unmet. Traditionally, young people in the care of the Local Authority may be very used to professionals discussing their needs at Social Care meetings including 'Reviews' of their care plans and other gatherings of the practitioners working with them. What this project seeks to explore is how young people themselves are engaged in consenting to that process.

Child <html_ent glyph="@amp;" ascii="&amp;"/> Family Social Work, 2001

It is remarkable that there have been so few books published about the operation of foster care systems. For this reason alone this book has to be very welcome. It is essential that the necessarily complex arrangements and processes underpinning foster care attract more research and policy attention. Yet the reality seems to be that too often foster care is relegated in importance as 'resources become attached to child protection', as one respondent in this study put it (p. 35).