The Education Of Children And Young People In State Care

Young people who leave care with few or no educational qualifications are at very high risk of social exclusion in adulthood. Yet in the past their education has attracted little attention from researchers or professionals. Studies by the editors and contributors to this volume show that the educational standards attained by young people in care fall progressively behind those of their peers living with their own families. This research-based book looks at the educational experiences of children and youths in nine different European countries and Canada. It identifies the obstacles that prevent them from realising their aspirations and discusses ways of improving their opportunities. How can countries with different traditions, welfare regimes and administrative systems learn from each other? What needs to be done at national, local and individual levels to give children in care equal chances with those living with their families? At present a child in public care is five times less likely to go to university than others. How can teachers, social workers and carers better support their educational attainment, and enable more of them to succeed and progress to tertiary education? This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Journal of Social Work.

This important book focuses on the critical role of educational achievement for the wellbeing and success of vulnerable youth in adulthood. It is concerned with three interconnected issues: the support which is or should be afforded to youth ageing out of state care to enable them to fulfil their academic potential; the interdependence of social aspects of ‘care’ and educational attainment for children growing up in state care; and the conditions which are pre-requisite for transition to fully autonomous adulthood, together with the implications of these for the state’s responsibilities to care leavers. These issues are addressed through a review of international literature based on the educational outcomes and life-chances of youth graduating from state care, analysis of the findings of a three-year qualitative study following the educational transitions of young people, and the use of theoretical frameworks to explore the complexities of children’s experiences of the state care system. In doing so the book balances predominantly needs-based discourses with a children’s right perspective, focusing on competence rather than vulnerability and promoting the development of the skills needed for autonomous adulthood. Reconceptualising Transitions from Care to Independence should be considered essential reading for researchers, practitioners and policy makers in the fields of education, childhood studies and adoption and fostering services. Additionally, the issues addressed are of wider relevance to youth transitions to adulthood. Youth ageing out of care provide a particularly insightful case study into the broader cohort of young people entering the workforce in an era of a globalised economy and austerity.

Here are the information, ideas, and inspiration that will help child care workers in their daily struggle to provide better care for children, youth, and families. Perspectives in Professional Child and Youth Care is a much-needed sourcebook of readings on the current state of the art of professional child and youth care in North America. Some of the leading practitioners, academicians, researchers, and administrators provide a “child care perspective,” writing about what they--on the front lines--perceive as the most pressing issues and significant topics in the field today, including the nature of child and youth care, current issues in education and training, therapeutic program issues, key support functions in child and youth programs, the changing work environment and new roles, and developing professionalism in the field of child and youth care. This enormously insightful book will be valuable for use in academic courses and training workshops, as well as for individual child and youth care professionals and practitioners from related disciplines.

Find out how group care for children has changed in the last 20 years Group Care Practice with Children and Young People Revisited focuses on the core issues that shape the quality of care that’s provided in institutional and residential care settings, as well as day care services that rely on the group process. Leading authorities on residential group care practice from around the world examine practice concepts centered on three broad themes: working directly with children; working indirectly to support children and their families; and organizational influences on practice. This unique book offers valuable insights for dealing with the daily challenges of working with young people in responsive group care. Group Care Practice with Children and Young People Revisited builds on contemporary themes that were explored by the editors more than 20 years ago in Group Care for Children: Concept and Issues, and Group Care Practice with Children, both out of print. Contributors to this updated collection put a fresh spin on the original material, as well as cross-cultural analysis from both sides of the Atlantic, Australia and New Zealand, Malaysia, China, and the United Arab Emirates. They revisit the key issues identified in the earlier books and provide personal and professional reflections on what has happened to their practice themes since the early 1980s. Special attention is paid to how social policy imperatives—normalization, de-institutionalization, mainstreaming, least restrictive environment, minimal intervention, and diversion—have reshaped the field, group care methods and skills needed for direct and indirect care, and group care as an occupational. Group Care Practice with Children and Young People Revisited examines (and re-examines): the relationships between group care practice and education how group care programs can become hostile to families primary care in secondary settings the importance of shared language in a group care center group development how group composition can influence the overall functioning of the group managing occupational stresses in group care practice patterns of career development in child and youth care economic influences that impact group care challenges facing the future of group care services for children and much more Group Care Practice with Children and Young People Revisited is a must-read for youth case workers, child and youth care educators, and anyone working in child welfare, including youth justice managers, administrators, and policymakers.

Drawing on original research, this theoretically grounded book offers important insight into the experiences of vulnerable youth at a critical time in their personal and educational lives. It sets its analysis of policy and practice in full international context and redresses the balance between needs- and rights-based perspectives.

For children who grow up being cared for by the state, rather than their families, in China, the past twenty years has seen a shift: China has gone away from keeping those children in institutions and towards alternative approaches that attempt to honor children's rights to an inclusive childhood and adulthood. This book reviews the changes in policy and practice that underlie this shift, and, through interviews with young people involved with state care in the period, presents a clear view of how the change in approach has affected individual lives. As this is an issue that all countries struggle with, the lessons on offer here will be of value not just to those working in and studying China but to a broader range of practitioners in child welfare and development.

With Children and Youth provides a snapshot of emerging theories and perspectives in the field of child and youth care across North America. Well-known scholars and researchers present new and innovative critical perspectives, written in a provocative manner and reflecting outside-the-box thinking. The book examines from scholarly and practical viewpoints the purpose of child and youth care practice, relational practice, post-modern approaches to thinking about theory and practice, and new and innovative thinking about the professionalization and accreditation of the discipline itself. Some chapters merge thinking about child and youth care with esoteric and literary prose; others use humour and satire as a way to represent both foundational and entirely new directions in the field. With Children and Youth provides no set conclusions or findings about the field; instead, it guides the reader to spaces of controversy, contention, and opportunities for innovation and change. Child and youth care practice and theory, it is argued, is based fundamentally on engagement across generations, cultures, and social positions, and this book exemplifies precisely that.

Based on the latest research and reflecting the national drive towards evidence-based standards, this book offers a model which can be readily applied to training, assessment of standards, inspections, and research and development.