This study explores the lived experiences of care leavers in Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Northern Ireland’s Children’s commissioner has expressed “great concern” about the lack of progress on mental health services for vulnerable children after figures revealed that up to 17 looked after children died over the past five years.

This is a market study conducted by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) into children's social care provision in the UK. The study found that there is a shortage of appropriate places in children’s homes and with foster carers, meaning that some children are not getting the right care from their placement. Some children are also being placed too far away from where they previously lived or in placements that require them to be separated from their siblings.The authors recommend the development of national and regional bodies to support local authorities with getting suitable placements for children in the UK.

This BBC news article details the emotional and psychological abuse discovered during the public inquiry into historical institutional abuse in the Church and state-run institutions for children in Northern Ireland.

UK practitioners find the impact they have on people's wellbeing most rewarding but are struggling with administrative burdens, inadequate staffing and workloads, finds first annual British Association of Social Workers (BASW) membership survey.

A “destroyer of lives”. That is what a nun called adoption rights activist Susan Lohan when she sought answers from the religious order that brokered her adoption. Instead of being given the truth, Lohan was told not to ask questions. She was born in 1964 to one of thousands of unmarried mothers forcibly separated from their children – usually women who had no choice but adoption due to their circumstances.

This article draws on first-person narratives of care leavers in Ireland who have aged out of care and transitioned into independent living in a dedicated social housing programme to examine their strategies for coping with these competing pressures.

Salary:

GBP £50-55,000 equivalent - fixed in local currency. Salary will be determined based on experience and adjusted to the local market rate.

This report provides analysis of all up-to-date LA sufficiency strategies with a focus on identifying (I) the main perceived challenges for local authorities (LAs) to meet their sufficiency duty, (II) what actions are being undertaken or planned by LAs to improve commissioning outcomes, and (III) perceived negative consequences associated with using certain commissioning or market shaping approaches. This work was commissioned by the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.

This research aims to identify and better understand what it is that enables and challenges the necessary improvements needed at national and local level to support children and young people to successfully transition to adulthood.