Published by the Commission on Young Lives at the end of last year, the report finds the current care system is actually handing over some children to criminals by moving them away from their families and placing them in accommodation that puts them at risk of harm.

This report highlights the changing characteristics of children in and on the ‘edge of care’, including unaccompanied minors, increasing numbers of young people with unmet complex needs and BAME young people.

In this summary report, the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) presents the findings of its 2021 annual survey providing an insight into the state
of the profession, the views of social workers and student social workers on key topics and the ongoing impact of working during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. The survey was launched in December 2021 as a place for social workers to reflect on their profession and their experiences in the preceding twelve months.

This article explores responses of 41 UK social workers to ethical challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, utilising UK data from an international qualitative survey and follow-up interviews in 2020. Challenges ranged from weighing individual rights/ needs against public health risks, to deciding whether to follow government/agency rules and guidance.

This policy brief summarises the policy context, as well as the key findings and recommendations from the analysis of the national responses to the DataCare survey across Europe. More detailed information can be found in the full research report: Better Data for Better Child Protection Systems in Europe: Mapping how data on children in alternative care are collected, analysed, and published across 28 European countries, which includes a full set of country profiles.

This report was conceptualised jointly by Eurochild and the UNICEF Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO) and builds on the Eurochild report on alternative care in Europe published in 2009. It also includes a full set of country profiles.

The DataCare Project was launched by Eurochild with support from UNICEF in March 2020. The project aims to carry out a comprehensive mapping of child protection data systems across the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU) and the UK. In addition to providing an overview of the situation of children in alternative care in Europe, this project aims to inform EU efforts to agree to comparable benchmarks and indicators to monitor progress in child protection reforms across Europe.

The analysis of the Step Up to Social Work and Frontline programmes found participants of both, while highly trained and valued by employers, often found the move to a full caseload a “major step up”.

But it said that “dissonance” between an idealised conception of social work and experience of local authority practice – leading to “disappointment” – was much more pronounced among graduates of the latter programme.

Latvia's parliament on Thursday passed new amendments to the Law on the Protection of the Children Rights, under which American citizens would no longer be able to adopt Latvian children, member of parliament Artuss Kaimins told Sputnik on Thursday.

On this day, 30 years ago, the UK Government made a pledge to the United Nations that it would honour the Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international human rights treaty containing comprehensive state obligations towards children.