This study of children's participation in decisions about their care draws on recent work in sociology and anthropology, psychology and legal philosophy in order to understand this challenging area of social life. It also reports on original and groundbreaking research into children's views of decision-making processes. The book has important theoretical implications and important lessons for social welfare policy and practice. It will be of interest to those involved in childhood studies or in qualitative research methods, as well as in social welfare provision.

This book challenges the concept of wellbeing as applied to children, particularly in a school-based context. Taking a post-structural approach, it suggests that wellbeing should be understood, and experiences revealed, at the level of the subjective child. This runs counter to contemporary accounts that reduce children's wellbeing to objective lists of things that are needed in order to live well. This book will be useful for academics and practitioners working directly with children, and anyone interested in children's wellbeing.

Recently, many political voices have indicated a strong desire to track down absent fathers who have absconded without fulfilling child support obligations to their biological or adopted children. This renewed interest in deadbeat dads has resulted from a recognition that the social welfare programs, which pick up the tab for abandoned children, are contributing significantly to an ever-increasing federal budget deficit. Meanwhile, in a large number of cases, there simply isn't enough money for an absent parent to maintain his own separate support and fulfill the support obligations that the law requires. This book explores the history, reforms, and consequences of child support in America. The authors have included case studies as well as discussions on the psychological consequences of separating families, effects of divorce laws on the award of child support, contested paternity, and child custody alternatives. They conclude with a discussion on economic responsibility and the deadbeat epidemic. The book is intended to empower the larger number of parents who are caught in the midst of overworked agencies, discouraging tales, and the lack of information that keeps them paralyzed from acting on their own behalf.

This book deals with the implementation and application of the "in the best interests of the child principle" in research and practice. With contributions by authors from nine different countries (United States, Belgium, France, Norway, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Israel, Ireland, Canada) an international perspective is adopted. After the outline of the theme given in the introductory chapter, the first part illustrates the search for theory-driven and empirically-based models to deal with the complexity of parenting. In the second part illustrations about the implementation and application of the best interests principle in child and youth care practice are given. Part three is focusing on the organization of child and youth care systems according to the best interests principle.

Provides social work students (undergraduate or graduate level) with 50 compelling case examples categorized by maltreatment type(s) and by underlying problems, with intervention plans along with tips for building working alliances with clients. Emphasizes growing the working alliance between social worker and client, reflecting the strength perspective emphasized in social work practice. Suitable for course usage on both BSW and MSW on the following modules: child welfare services; family preservation services; evidence-based practice; and human behavior in the social environment.

In recent years increasing attention has been paid to issues of social exclusion and the problematic transition from youthful dependence to adult independence. Often this has had severe consequences, ranging from under achievement and disruptive behaviour in school, through the misuse of alcohol and drugs, to serious or persistent offending. Seeking to address these issues has become a major focus of public policy and a variety of forms of intervention with disaffected youth have been set up. One of the most talked about forms of intervention with disaffected youth has been 'mentoring'. This book, based on a large-scale research study, examines the lives of a large group of 'disaffected' young people, and considers the impact that involvement in a mentoring programme had on them. In doing so it fills a large gap, providing empirical evidence on the effectiveness of mentoring programmes, providing at the same time a vivid insight into the nature of such disaffection, the realities of contemporary social exclusion among young people and the experience and outcome of mentoring.

Improve services for children and youth with new concepts, different perspectives, and up-to-date information! How Institutions are Shaping the Future of Our Children: For Better or for Worse? explores the positive and negative impacts of social institutions on child and adolescent well-being. Experts in the fields of social work and child welfare provide a broad perspective on how to improve outcomes for children and adolescents who receive institutional services either directly or indirectly. This book contains innovative strategies for reducing the negative outlook for children and families in shelters, foster homes, and residential treatment centers. This book offers improvements for care services at such locations as: residential institutions state custody and foster homes schools youth development organizations urban public housing developments homeless shelters In How Institutions are Shaping the Future of Our Children, you'll discover current case studies that show how certain groupssuch as minorities and economically challenged children and familiesare stigmatized by the current child welfare system. You'll also find new evidence of the detrimental effects that can occur as a result of institutionalization and the need to find alternatives to removing children and adolescents from family-style environments. This book contains tables to clarify the findings of these case studies, references to further your reading, and detailed descriptions of plans and programs that you can implement in your own social work practice. How Institutions are Shaping the Future of Our Children presents new ways to create positive environments for children and adolescents, including: strengths-based approaches to practice with children with severe emotional and behavioral disturbances custody planning for the children of HIV-infected women discipline-specific education for child protection caseworkers creating supportive staff-youth relationships within all institutions multiple family group interventions which help to strengthen homeless families in preparation to transition to permanent housing the School Development Program, Child Development Project, and Comprehensive Quality Programminginterventions for preventing school drop-outs Life Plans for post-institutionalized youth

Once considered the preserve of the wealthy, nanny care has grown in response to changes in the labour market, including the rising number of working mothers with young children and increases in non-standard work patterns. This book presents new empirical research about in-home childcare in Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada, three countries where governments are pursuing new ways to support in-home childcare through funding, regulation and migration. The compelling policy story that emerges illustrates the implications of different mechanisms for facilitating in-home childcare - for families and for care workers.

Continuing his ongoing social critique, Henry Giroux looks at the way corporate culture is encroaching on the lives of children by exploring three myths prevalent in our society: that the triumph of democracy is related to the triumph of the market; that children are unaffected by power and politics; and that teaching and learning are no longer linked to improving the world. Looking at childhood beauty pageants, school shootings, and the omnipresent nihilistic chic of advertising, Giroux paints a disturbing picture of the world surrounding our children. Ultimately, he turns to the work of Antonio Gramsci, Paulo Freire, and Stuart Hall for lessons on how we can reinstitute a realistic childhood for our children.

This compendium provides an orientation to basic issues of child and family policy. It includes an overview of the recent history of child and family policy in the United States; an exploration of several political economic conditions underlying changes in these policies; a historical survey of policies toward dependent children; and case studies of selected local, state, and federal policies. The case study approach helps to discern patterns in successful and unsuccessful policies, clarify assumptions and values that underlie them, and develop evaluation criteria. Policy formation is the focus in analyses of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act; family support initiatives in Kentucky, Missouri, and Maryland; and municipal policies for homeless families in Atlanta, Denver, and Seattle. Examinations of the federal Baby Doe regulations and AIDS education policy in the Cambridge, Massachusetts, public schools highlight policy implementation. An account of the Massachusetts Day Care Partnership Project concentrates on the third phase of policy analysis: policy evaluation. The concluding chapters stress the importance of considering race, class, and gender in defining social problems, setting policy agendas, and structuring and evaluating policies and programs. They then provide an analytic framework for assessing future responsibilities for U.S. child and family policy.

Families need child care more in the 1990s than ever before. Those hours surrounding school time are particularly troublesome for working parents. In this new edition of a pioneering work, Seligson and Allenson explore the challenges that child care providers will encounter as the 21st century approaches. The authors skillfully balance a practical business operations text with an investigation into the meaning of social obligation. The central theme of partnership in offering care underscores each of the 12 chapters. These general planning elements form guidelines designing and managing a caring program for children aged 5-12.

Topics covered include administration, curriculum, legal issues, budgeting, and assessment. Careful consideration is given to an outline for human resources development. The authors take an in-depth look at the day-to-day operation of a center--detailing concerns from behavioral and medical to scheduling and transportation. The concept of a child care professionalism which reflects respect, partnership, and caring, is sustained throughout this practical manual. An important contribution to the research and practice of child care, this volume draws providers and practitioners together in a process of self-reflection in order to effectively respond to the needs of today's--and tomorroW's--families.

Where is feminist state theory today? This book offers novel insights into social science debates by analyzing feminist theories of the state. It argues that we need feminist tools for analyzing states and focuses on two debates, domestic violence and childcare, as areas where feminists discursively construct the state. These themes are developed within a comparative perspective. Focusing on devolution in Scotland and the European Union, the book further explores how feminist state theories conceive multi-level governance.

In this poignant book, Lisa Cherry brings together a collection of candid and personal reflections on the care system in the UK, offering alternative ways of thinking about the care experience, supporting better ways of working, and providing justification for a trauma-informed lens to be applied to all forms of work with those in care. Through personal insights and reflections, the book brings often-unheard stories vividly to life, beginning with the author's own. These are stories about love and pain; hurt and isolation; the depth of lived experience that makes up a life; how we live our lives through our relationships with others and where we feel we fit in. In this thoughtfully compiled third edition, original contributors look back on their own reflections from the lives that they live now, new stories bring new perspectives, and discussion points provide the opportunity to consider the realities of the care experience as well as life beyond. Whilst each story is unique, shared themes reveal the truth of the care system and, coming at a time where there is a real opportunity for change, the narratives in this book are ultimately stories of hope and connection. This is crucial reading for policy makers, those working in social work, education and adoption, as well as care experienced adults.

Family Group Conferencing indicates a large-scale shift in assumptions about the way child welfare services are planned and delivered--away from models that emphasize pathology, and toward those seeking an ecological understanding of the families and social networks involved. The contributors also present a wealth of information on related approaches, such as community conferences, circles, and wraparound services. The British Journal of Social Work noted that "there are issues relating to both process and outcome. This book offers some answers that are intelligent and passionate."

In April 2009, an inspiring international conference was held at Bielefeld on the topic "Children and the Good Life: New Challenges for Research on Children." The focus was on how we can define and measure a "good life" for children growing up in the modern world. This tied in with discussions on how convincing universalistic theories are, what research on children can contribute, and how children themselves can be integrated into the research process and debates on the "good life."

Discourses and the production of knowledge on the "good life" or "well-being" require a guiding idea or a theoretical frame. This frame can come from the feminist ethic of care or from the Human and Children's Rights Convention, from the idea of welfare, or from the Capability Approach.

Bringing together essays, research studies and other material written over the past two decades, this book traces through them a history of political and intellectual debates on the left and in cultural studies, around central issues of education, labour and the youth question. An argument is made for linking the cultural, structural and autobiographical dimensions of the youth question in order to engage educationally with the burden of representation which young people are made to carry via race, class and sexuality in the postmodern world. The book includes three major unpublished pieces and an introduction which discusses the nature of the collection, and sets it in both a personal and political context.

Traditional models of childhood need reconstructing, especially as children become more active in negotiating the boundaries between themselves and adults. Wyness argues for new, more effective conceptions of childhood, derived from analysis of recent social policy. He interprets legislation and reveals that recent children acts and educational reform exhibit a strengthening of the socialising power of adults over children. Most importantly, this book challenges a prevalent underlying conception of children as 'lesser' or 'inferior' versions of adults, a flawed understanding that still influences policy.

Les B. Whitbeck and Dan R. Hoyt begin their report on street children in the Midwest with the statement, "If you live in or have visited even a medium-sized city recently, you have seen runaway and homeless young people. They congregate in certain downtown areas and hang out in malls during inclement weather . . . Mostly, they look like the other kids. . . . The difference is that they won't be going home tonight."

This book draws on a study of over six hundred runaway and homeless adolescents and over two hundred of their caretakers from cities in four Midwestern states. It focuses on the family histories of these young people and on the developmental impact of early independence. Street social networks, subsistence strategies, sexuality, and street victimization are all considered, as well as their effect on adolescent behaviors and emotional health.

Relying on interviews and data from survey research, and working in partnership with street outreach agencies, Whitbeck and Hoyt lead the reader through the various risk factors associated with precocious independence, beginning in the family and extending to external environments and behaviors. Nowhere to Grow is an emotional account of the cumulative consequences for young people with few good options at the outset and even fewer once they are on their own.

Many of our children live in communities where violence, fear, and despair are commonplace. This book describes how one city developed a collaborative effort between law-enforcement and mental health professionals in order to help these children and their families. The Child Development-Community Policing Program in New Haven, Connecticut, was initiated in 1991 to deal more effectively with children who are victims or perpetrators of violence. Police officers, preparing for the new responsibilities of community-based policing, have become familiar with an array of strategies for preventing and responding to community violence. Mental health professionals have learned firsthand about the texture and trauma of the lives of children at risk. Police and mental health professionals working together have been able to mobilize treatment services more quickly and effectively and to assure that treatment plans are carried out. This manual provides a model, case studies, and guidelines for training the participants, operating a consultation service, and evaluating the program on an ongoing basis, all of which will be useful for other communities seeking to implement a similar project.

Solution-based casework is an approach to assessment, case planning, and case management that combines what we know from clinical social work with what we value about sound social work practice. It is grounded in family-centered social work and draws from clinical approaches within social work and mental health. By integrating problem- and solution-focused approaches that form the clinical and social work traditions, treatment partnerships are more easily formed between family, caseworker, and service provider.

Solution-Based Casework is a skill-based, practice-oriented text that provides the specific guidance that students and new practitioners need in order to make sense quickly of the complex tasks of assessment and case planning in child welfare. The book flows out of a long practice experience, and was developed in consultation with workers and supervisors who were attempting to remedy problems viewed as contributing to recurrent abuse and neglect. It seeks to end adversarial relationships in casework and advocates case plans based on specific outcome skills rather than on those written with vague outcome goals measuring attendance in counseling. It serves as a common conceptual framework for integrating disparate segments of a response network, thereby allowing all providers in a therapeutic system to work toward common goals.

The text is divided into three sections. In Section I the conceptual history and theoretical foundations of solution-based casework are presented so that the reader can place this approach to casework within the ongoing professional conversation about what constitutes sound practice. Section II addresses issues of assessment and case planning. Section III focuses on case management issues and how treatment team members experience a solution-based casework approach.

Solution-based casework is an approach to assessment, case planning, and case management that combines what we know from clinical social work with what we value about sound social work practice. It is grounded in family-centered social work and draws from clinical approaches within social work and mental health. By integrating problem- and solution-focused approaches that form the clinical and social work traditions, treatment partnerships are more easily formed between family, caseworker, and service provider.

Solution-Based Casework is a skill-based, practice-oriented text that provides the specific guidance that students and new practitioners need in order to make sense quickly of the complex tasks of assessment and case planning in child welfare. The book flows out of a long practice experience, and was developed in consultation with workers and supervisors who were attempting to remedy problems viewed as contributing to recurrent abuse and neglect. It seeks to end adversarial relationships in casework and advocates case plans based on specific outcome skills rather than on those written with vague outcome goals measuring attendance in counseling. It serves as a common conceptual framework for integrating disparate segments of a response network, thereby allowing all providers in a therapeutic system to work toward common goals.

The text is divided into three sections. In Section I the conceptual history and theoretical foundations of solution-based casework are presented so that the reader can place this approach to casework within the ongoing professional conversation about what constitutes sound practice. Section II addresses issues of assessment and case planning. Section III focuses on case management issues and how treatment team members experience a solution-based casework approach.

First published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Current family policy approaches emphasise the significance of paternal involvement in children's lives, yet there has been a silence on violent and abusive fathering in these discourses. This is the first UK book to specifically focus on violent fathering discussing original research in the context of domestic violence and emerging practice literature to address this problem. Violent fathering and the risks to children examines fathers' perceptions of their domestic violence and its impact on children, their relationships with children and their parenting practices. It looks at fathers' reasons for wanting contact with children post-separation, abusive parenting practices during child contact and the impacts of perpetrator programmes on the fathers' own perceptions of their abuse. It also discusses abused mothers' perceptions of their ex-partners' parenting. The author recommends ways that policy and practice can be improved in order to safeguard children in family law and child protection practice through a better understanding of the risks posed and appropriate assessment of violent fathers as parents. This book will be of interest to academics and students in family and child welfare policy, socio-legal studies, social work, criminology, gender studies and other disciplines with an interest in domestic violence and child protection. It will also be also be of considerable value to professionals working in this area.

Sexual, Physical, and Emotional Abuse in Out-of-Home Care brings into the open current or past sexually, physically, or emotionally abusive behaviors between children or between children and their caregivers in out-of-home care and helps prevent future victimization. The curriculum gives you 20 exercises that promote respectful and nurturing interactions among caregivers and children by offering healthy concepts of touching, communication, and boundaries. By implementing the concepts in this curriculum, you ll help create positive, healthy attachments for children in out-of-home care who may feel abandoned and alone. Exercises in Sexual, Physical, and Emotional Abuse in Out-of-Home Care assist children and caregivers in understanding their rights and others'rights in residential treatment centers and group or foster homes. Exercises focus on: communication on a continuum--teaches children and staff about their own communication and the communications they receive from others a touch continuum--provides an excellent vehicle for discussing the comforting and soothing touch children need and how to differentiate this from eight other types of touch differentiating sexual play from problematic sexual contact between children--helps children and staff talk about sex personal space and boundaries--discusses these as areas of major violations in children who have been abused sexual knowledge--teaches the body parts and their functions discovering what a sex offender does to trick children into situations that end up in sexual abuse--asks the children to make rules that assist other children to recognize unsafe situations, and then gives them the opportunity to create a video, pamphlet, advertisement, or commercial to tell other kids these rulesThis curriculum is unique because it can be completed through children and adults talking together. It assumes that there will be difficulties and conflicts between staff and children and among children themselves and provides a forum in which to raise and discuss these issues. You ll find the curriculum perfect for caregiver training or as exercises caregivers and children do together. You ll also find it very useful for working with children 's families either in family sessions or in multifamily groups.