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This report produced by Coram Voice and the NYAS (National Youth Advocacy Service) captures the views of care-experienced children and young people in the UK on recommendations set out in the independent review of children’s social care in England. The report follows a recent MP debate on the care review (24 November) and the government’s response to the review and implementation plan are expected in early 2023.
Today’s report summarises feedback from over 80 children and young people aged 8-25 years from 27 local authorities across England on three key areas of the care review: making…
For centuries, residential child and youth care systems worldwide have provided homes for vulnerable children and adolescents. The implementation of children's rights, especially the right of participation, is assessed as an important base for promoting the best interests of the child in an out-of-home care environment.
Featuring contributions from distinguished international authors, this volume offers an in-depth understanding of crucial participation processes and underlying power structures when involving young people in decision-making about their care and everyday life in different…
Autistic children's experiences of COVID-19 have been largely absent from current crisis and recovery discourse. This is the first published study to directly and specifically involve autistic children both as research advisors and as research participants in a rights-based participatory study relating to the pandemic.
In arrangements for children’s participation in child welfare systems, professionals’ interpretations of children’s views on family and their own constructions of family will impact children’s conditions for expressing feelings and moral agency. This article analyses the accounts of children’s spokespersons in Norway, whose mandate is to speak with and forward children’s views in care proceedings.
The analyses show how constructions of loyalty, family interdependence, and individualism may inform spokespersons’ interpretations of children’s views, and thereby their exploratory practices in…
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased inequalities experienced by many children across Europe. In 2020, the authors conducted a snapshot survey across the UK and elsewhere in Europe to provide early evidence of the contexts children were experiencing, responses to COVID-19 and the possibilities for children’s participation. Their research revealed that rather than recognising the hardships experienced and celebrating the contributions being made by children and young people, some have experienced an increased lack of income, food, medication and access to formal education; some families did…
Abstract
There is a growing literature on how children are heard in the field of child welfare, often with indications of how difficult it may be to fulfil their right to be heard. This article examines children’s spokespersons’ accounts of speaking with children in care proceedings about their views and wishes. The study consists of interviews with 22 children’s spokespersons in Norway. Study findings question whether children in care proceedings understand the invitation to voice their wishes as confined to matters relating to the proceedings. Based on their accounts of their practices,…
The Children’s Rights and Inclusion Strategy was launched on 20 November 2020 by Children's Hearings Scotland after going out for consultation on 16 July 2020, as launched by Deputy First Minister, John Swinney, in the Scottish Parliament. It aims to ensure children feel able to speak openly and honestly in hearings, and that their views are given real weight in the decision making process. It also aims to ensure children feel empowered, and that they have ownership of their rights.
The strategy was carefully crafted in collaboration with people with lived experience of the hearings…
Abstract
This article explores children’s views and experiences of participation within the context of child protection assessment practice. The findings of this study enable child protection workers as well as other professionals to learn from children, what is needed to better engage children to participate in matters affecting them. A small-scale study included 14 children registered as children in need of assistance in child protective services from one region in Estonia through in-depth semi-structured interviews. Findings indicate that children’s experiences and memories of their…
Privacy and confidentiality in the Children’s Hearings System have always been paramount. However, anecdotally it was felt that more work needed to be done to ensure people’s voices are respected and treated in confidence. In order to fully understand the relationship between privacy and confidentiality in the Children’s Hearings System, this research explored three broad questions: (1) How privacy and confidentiality impact on the participation of young people and their parents and carers in the Children’s Hearings System, (2) What is the relationship between advocacy and privacy and…
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the SCLC Alliance partners have continued to meet regularly, strengthening our collective resolve to: collate and share information; to identify and share interesting and effective practice; to offer support directly to care leavers and care experienced young people; and to offer support to those agencies and organisations who provide services and care for them.
This briefing paper aims to highlight some of the key issues and some of the solutions that have been identified. We draw together learning from our own work and from our extensive networks and…