Early education and care has become a central policy area in many countries. As services expand rapidly, it is crucial to examine whether children from disadvantaged backgrounds receive provision of the highest possible quality. In this original, topical book, leading experts from eight countries examine how early education and care is organised, funded and regulated in their countries. Bringing together recent statistical evidence, the book gives an up-to-date picture of access to services by different groups, providing rich insights on how policies play out in practice, and the extent to which they help or hinder disadvantaged children to receive high quality provision. An equal start? reveals the common tensions and complexities countries face in ensuring that early education and care is affordable, accessible and of high quality. Its critical examination of the potential for better policies ensures that An equal start? will be of interest to academic readers as well as policy makers and practitioners.

Newly available in paperback, this thorough and engaging examination of an institution and its young charges is set in the wider social, cultural, demographic and medical context of the eighteenth century. By examining the often short lives of abandoned babies, Levene illustrates the variety of pathways to health, ill-health and death taken by the young and how it intersected with local epidemiology, institutional life and experiences of abandonment, feeding and child-care. Child fostering, paid nursing and family formation in different parts of England are also examined, showing how this metropolitan institution called on a network of contacts to try to raise its charges to good health. Of significance to scholars working in economic and social history, medical and institutional history and histories of childhood and childcare in the early modern period, the book will also appeal to anthropologists interested in child-rearing and feeding practices, and inter-family relationships.

Using the case study of a Seattle school, this text describes a working model for the education of homeless children in America's public schools.

This edited collection brings together international academics, policy makers and practitioners to examine the social and cultural contexts of breastfeeding and looks at how policy and practice can apply this to women's experiences.

Child poverty is rising across affluent Western societies; how it is measured is vital to how governments act to prevent, alleviate or eliminate it. While the roots of childhood poverty are fiercely debated and contested, they are all too often misrepresented in policy and media discourses. Seeking to redress this problem, Treanor places children's experiences, needs and concerns at the centre of this critical examination of the contemporary policies and political discourses surrounding poverty in childhood. She examines a broad range of structural, institutional and ideological factors common across developed nations, and their impacts, to interrogate how poverty in childhood is conceptualised and operationalised in policy and to forge a radical pathway for an alternative future.

Passionately argued, this book articulates a new and urgent case for youth work. Drawing on his extensive experience as a union leader for youth workers in the UK, Doug Nicholls argues for sweeping cultural change within the youth sector, identifying the important things youth workers have achieved and the major changes that must take place if they are to keep up with the radically altered world. Examining a wide range of theories from various practices, government policies, and international scholarship, he speaks to youth workers with wit, wisdom, and warmth about their lives.

A clear and practical guide for adults facing the responsibility of helping a child through the pain of separation and loss. Based on years of working with hundreds of bereaved children, this study describes the various stages of mourning and the type of behaviour shown by children at each delicate stage of the grieving process. It describes the many simple techniques that any adult can use to help children through their grief and guide them to its timely resolution. The author uses case histories and sample dialogues between helper and child, which help to explain the long-term impact of separation and loss in a wide variety of situations. This book aims to be helpful to any adult, whether parent, social worker, therapist, counsellor, teacher or friend who is faced with the responsibility of helping a grieving child.

This book is designed to enable practitioners to help children whose emotional wellbeing is being adversely affected by troubled parents. These are children who live with the burden of having to navigate their parent's troubled emotional states, often leaving them with a mass of painful feelings about a chaotic and disturbing world. They can feel alarmed by their parent rather than experiencing them as 'home', and a place of safety and solace. The author explores the fact that when parents are preoccupied with their own troubles, they are often unable to effectively address their child's core relational needs, e.g. soothing, validating, attunement, co-adventure, interactive play. As a result, children are left self-helping, which all too often means drugs, drink, self-harm, depression, anxiety, eating disorders or problems with anger in the teenage years. This guidebook offers readers a wealth of vital theory and effective interventions for working with these children and, specifically, the key feelings such children need help with. Particular focus is given to the effects on children of: family breakdown, separation and divorce, witnessing parents fighting, and parents who suffer from depression or anxiety, mental or physical ill-health, alcohol or drug addiction. Readers will learn: the complexity of children's feelings about their troubled parents how to enable children to address their unspoken hurt, fear, grief, rage, and resentment about their troubled parent in order to move forward in their lives how to empower children to find their voice when they have been left in the role of impotent bystander effective parent-child intervention when parental troubles are adversely affecting the child and how to help a parent and child 'find' each other again.

The issue of Childhood Sexual Experiences (CSEs) is highly controversial, and has generated considerable disagreement and conflict. Such experiences are often framed as child sexual abuse (CSA) within a discourse of child maltreatment. Sexual activity between adults and young children is indeed abuse, and fully merits the moral stance taken by therapists, health professionals and society. However, Childhood Sexual Experiences presents evidence that viewing all CSEs through the same prism of abuse, victimhood and commonly-held perceptions of gender socialisation may not always allow those affected to tell the whole story. Not all those who experienced sexual activity as children view themselves as victims, believe that their experiences had a profoundly or irrevocably negative impact on their lives, or view their experiences as 'abusive'. Others do not want their identities to be linked to specific events in childhood. Applying a positive psychology approach, Childhood Sexual Experiences recounts and explores the stories of those who have shown an ability to come to terms with or overcome the difficulties that they have faced, exploring the insights these narratives of resilience present to therapists and health and social care professionals. 'I would encourage you to read this book with an open mind and to look for the strength and determination to be found in these narratives, remembering that those who are resilient may teach us how better to help those who are less fortunate.' - Sally V

Elaine Aspinwall-Roberts is a Senior Lecturer in Adult Social Care at Liverpool John Moores University, UK. She is a qualified social worker and was previously a local authority team manager. She has worked extensively with older people, people with physical disabilities and people with learning disabilities. *** Conducting a home visit is a fundamental part of a social worker's role, but in practical terms many key issues are overlooked during social work training. This is a practical guide to conducting home visits, a task which many newly qualified social workers can feel unprepared for and which can be fraught with difficulties. Useful features of the book include: * Real case examples based on practitioner's experiences * Realistic solutions to the everyday difficulties you might face * Examples of what to say * Reference to the latest guidance, including Working Together to Safeguard Children (2013) to ensure you are practicing in line with statutory requirements and expectations * Guidance and support in understanding lessons learned recent child protection SCRs Written by an experienced social worker and expert in child protection, this book is clear, straightforward and jargon-free. It will be a useful aid to any professionals required to do home visiting. The book addresses: * What you need to do to prepare for the visit * How to get in the door * What to do when you are in the home * What you need to look out for * Practical ways to implement lessons learned from recent serious case reviews *** "This book forms part of a series of pocketbooks for social workers. These compact guides are written in an accessible and to-the-point style to help the busy practitioner locate the information they need as and when they need it-all bound up in A5 and under! The pocketbooks explore key practical skills involved in such areas as mental capacity, report writing and assessment." '"..this pocket book of fabulous knowledge is NOT just for social work in the child protection arena. This book has so many wonderful hints and tips surrounding home visits in general that I recommend this book as a pocket friend for anyone who, like me, is daunted by the dreaded home visit! This book is written from personal experiences and practice examples, to aid consolidation and understanding. Helpful, thought provoking questions run throughout the book, highlighting key areas to think about before and during a home visit. Alongside these questions there are 'light bulb' reminders to ensure that key points are easy to notice. I feel this book excels in deconstructing the situations that we all panic over, from aggressive dogs, a child answering the door or even language barriers. Additionally unlike most books, this book can be dipped in and out of, and does not need to be read from cover to cover. Conducting a home visit in child protection not only contains written information, but also contains diagrams, practice examples, transcripts, check lists and a very useful glossary! A must read for ANY social work student, Newly Qualified or Practitioner!" Natalie Heath, Social Work Student

The authors draw on their extensive early years experience to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the key issues in the field of early childhood care and education. In this fully updated and revised new edition, rewritten to include the new Early Years Foundation Stage, students will find that this text now meets the needs of students on Foundation degrees, Early Childhood Degrees and the new Early Years Professional qualification. Topics covered in this essential textbook include: an overview of the principles of effective practice discussions on equal opportunities and children's rights an update of the latest development theories relating to brain development and how children learn and the difficulties children may face in their learning investigations into what working with parents really means consideration of the different early years systems in operation summaries of key management issues and useful information on how to address them comparison with European perspectives on early years care and education the importance of play in children's early learning. Readers of this second edition will also find the expansion of existing chapters in order to include topics such as inclusion, transitions, child protection in relation to the internet and partnerships with parents. The book covers the whole age range from birth to eight years with a special section on the birth to three years age group. Each chapter is fully referenced and has case studies or reflective practice boxes within the text. Informative and engaging, the book challenges the reader to think about how underlying theory may be reflected in practice. It will be essential reading for all students who are studying for early childhood qualifications at levels four, five and six.

Children's Anxiety: A Contextual Approach provides an introduction to anxiety in children and teenagers, emphasising the importance of understanding the life circumstances of young people. The book provides an up-to-date account of research on the developmental, familial and social context of child anxiety, along with nine vibrant and detailed case studies illustrating the ways in which young people can be helped to deal with serious and complex anxiety problems. In order to begin to understand complex anxiety within children's life circumstances Part One of the book provides the reader with a developmental framework for thinking about children's anxiety. Part Two then presents nine in depth case studies, organised not by the type or nature of anxiety but by the context within which problematic anxiety can occur. Part Three acts as a summary of the key points emerging from the clinical case studies. This book will be essential reading for those working and training in the specialist field of child mental health, as well as community and hospital professionals working with children and young people, including teachers, doctors, social workers and nurses.

For centuries, societies have relied upon residential care settings to provide homes for children, and for much of that period a debate has raged over whether such settings are appropriate places for children to be raised. In recent years this debate has taken on an international dimension as human rights policies have called into question the legitimacy of residential care of children. Unfortunately, the ideological fervor that usually accompanies such discussions prevents a more nuanced understanding of the reasons that countries continue to make use of residential care.
Residential Care of Children: Comparative Perspectives fills major gaps in knowledge about residential care and is intended to inform debates within and between nations about the appropriate use of such institutions. Eleven country-specific chapters, written by child welfare experts from around the world, provide an in-depth understanding of the historical development of residential care, the current state of affairs, and predictions for the future. Chapters describe how residential care is defined in each country, how it has evolved over time, factors that have contributed to the observed pattern of development of residential care, and potential concerns for the future. An integrative chapter presents a critical cross-national perspective, identifying common themes and analyzing underlying factors. Seeking to explain rather than cast judgment, Residential Care of Children: Comparative Perspectives will be fruitful reading for policymakers, program administrators, advocates, practitioners, and scholars interested in creating better services for vulnerable children and youth.

Updates to BTEC National Set Tasks for external assessment - April 2017 As a result of feedback from the Department for Education Pearson have made updates to the Set Tasks for some BTEC National qualifications. Therefore subsequent changes have been made to this product. If you have purchased this book before 13th April 2017, details of these changes can be found here. [link to www.pearsonfe.co.uk/BTECchanges]. Corrected copies will be available to purchase by June 2017. The Student Book and ActiveBook has clearly laid out pages with a range of supportive features to aid learning and teaching: * Getting to know your unit sections ensure learners understand the grading criteria and unit requirements. * Getting ready for assessment sections focus on preparation for external assessment with guidance for learners on what to expect. Hints and tips will help them prepare for assessment and sample answers are provided for a range of question types including, short and long answer questions, all with a supporting commentary. * Pause point features provide opportunities for learners to self-evaluate their learning at regular intervals. Each Pause point feature gives learners a Hint or Extend option to either revisit and reinforce the topic or encourage independent research or further study skills. * Case study and Theory into practice features enable development of problem-solving skills and place the theory into real life situations learners could encounter. * Assessment practice features provide scaffolded activities that help prepare learners for assessment. Within each assessment practice activity, a Plan, Do and Review section supports learners' formative assessment by to making sure they fully understand what they are being asked to do, what their goals are and how to evaluate the task and consider how they could improve. * Literacy and numeracy activities provide opportunities for reinforcement in these key areas, placing the skills into a children's play, learning and development context. * Dedicated Think future pages provide case studies from the industry, with a focus on aspects of skills development that can be put into practice in a real work environment and further study.

Betsy de Thierry's best-selling Simple Guides tell you what you really need to know about child trauma and attachment. This five-book library covers: * Attachment disorders * Child trauma * Collective trauma * Complex trauma and dissociation * Shame Providing easy routes to understanding difficult and complex concepts, these books give you an understanding of what trauma is and most importantly, how to help children and young people who have experienced it.

This book presents and brings together research on child sexual abuse from various countries and cultures in the Arab Region. It addresses the multiple types of Child Sexual Abuse Exploitation and Trafficking (CSAET) and responds to the expanding burden of its diverse presentations. The book identifies appropriate structures for efficient programs that are to be accepted and developed by diverse cultures in the region, in order to develop an action plan to combat sexual violence against children. It studies the gathered to date child sexual abuse protection systems in the Arab region, covering issues such as children's rights, challenges of protection and advocates for peaceful, safe, healthy and happy environments for children and their families.

"Your child can achieve great things." A few years ago, pregnant women in four corners of the world heard those words and hoped they could be true. Among them were Esther Okwir in rural Uganda, where the infant mortality rate is among the highest in the world; Jessica Saldana, a high school student in a violence-scarred Chicago neighborhood; Shyamkali, the mother of four girls in a low-caste village in India; and Maria Estella, in Guatemala's western highlands, where most people are riddled with parasites and moms can rarely afford the fresh vegetables they farm. Greatness? It was an audacious thought, given their circumstances. But they had new cause to be hopeful: they were participating in an unprecedented international initiative designed to transform their lives, the lives of their children, and ultimately the world. The 1,000 Days movement, a response to recent, devastating food crises and new research on the economic and social costs of childhood hunger and stunting, is focused on providing proper nutrition during the first 1,000 days of children's lives, beginning with their mother's pregnancy. Proper nutrition during these days can profoundly influence an individual's ability to grow, learn, and work-and determine a society's long-term health and prosperity. In this inspiring, sometimes heartbreaking book, Roger Thurow takes us into the lives of families on the forefront of the movement to illuminate the science, economics, and politics of malnutrition, charting the exciting progress of this global effort and the formidable challenges it still faces: economic injustice, disease, lack of education and sanitation, misogyny, and corruption.

Protecting children from abuse and neglect is a serious and complex area of social work practice and understanding the critical skills of communicating with and listening to children's voices, and those of their advocates and survivors, is essential. In this new edition of a highly-regarded book, the authors offer a strengthened children's rights perspective and explore four main categories of child abuse - emotional abuse, sexual abuse, neglect and physical abuse. The book also considers legal safeguards and protective processes to increase the creativity and confidence of those undertaking such work. Locating knowledge and skills within a series of case examples from real life practice and serious case reviews, this book is an indispensable resource for students, professionals and others concerned with protecting children. This second edition has been comprehensively revised and updated to include current research evidence and a focus on the neglected protection needs of sexually exploited young people, children in custody, disabled children, young carers and unaccompanied child migrants.

This book is perfect for childminders and nannies working towards the new CACHE Level 3 Diploma - and for experienced home-based childcarers who want to update their knowledge. It provides complete coverage of the new CACHE Diploma in Home-based Childcare with inspiring colour photos and illustrations, and is approved by the National Childminding Association (NCMA), so you can be sure of relevant, reliable content. It also features an extra chapter on study skills with practical guidance on preparing for assessment.

This work concerns clinical and theoretical work on psychotherapy with severely disturbed children. The author worked closely with Donald Winnicott in the period after World War II and applied his ideas, and her ownm, to the therapy of severely damaged children.

Get up-to-date information on children's and parent's rights Children have a basic human right to be free of abuse and maltreatment. The late Dr. John Pardeck's Children's Rights: Policy and Practice, Second Edition comprehensively explores the latest legal, psychological, sociological, policy, and child advocacy issues dealing with children's rights. Essential issues are clearly discussed involving children at home, in school, in foster care, and in residential facilities. This new edition of The Haworth Social Work Practice Press classic examines the practical and ethical issues inherent in balancing a child's right to self-determination against the same child's need to be protected. Children's Rights: Policy and Practice, Second Edition delves deep into the causes of abuse and neglect and offers help for families at risk. Techniques are presented for case and cause advocacy, as well as venues for family and individual therapy. Other discussions address the role and function of child protective services and the juvenile justice system, a review of effective social policy to protect and care for children, family health and children's rights issues, and children's rights in schools and day care facilities. This essential exploration includes extensive references and notes, a list of Web sites, and a comprehensive glossary of influential legal rulings focusing on children's rights. Children's Rights: Policy and Practice, Second Edition includes over 100 pages of new and updated material on: new rulings of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that have implications for children's rights legal case studies an overview and analysis of the Leave No Child Behind Act children's rights and school violence an expanded discussion on practice interventions focusing on various approaches for helping children adjust to substitute care an expanded examination on advocacy and children's rights, with emphasis on legal case studies as a tool for enhancing the rights of children Balancing theoretical considerations, solid information, and practical advice, Children's Rights: Policy and Practice, Second Edition is an essential resource for child welfare workers, attorneys, educators, students, parents, and social workers.

Child protection and family support is a major social issue and there is a continuing debate about how policies and practices in relation to child protection integrate with those in family support and child welfare more generally. Prompted in part by the Audit Commission and the publication of the Department of Health Research studies in child protection, it is the key issue facing all child welfare agencies. While it is agreed that there needs to be a "rebalancing" between child protection and family support there is concern amongst managers and practitioners if things go wrong, subjecting them to public inquiry and media contempt. This text brings together a range of researchers and commentators to analyze the nature of the issue and possible ways forward. It draws on recent research case studies; policy makers, managers and practitioners in social work and child welfare agencies.

This book combines perspectives from psychology, spiritual education and digital teaching pedagogies in a transnational framework to discuss the Education in Human Values Program (EHV) for child development, with a focus on silent sitting, mindfulness, meditation and story-telling as tools in the classroom. Through positive guidance in the early stages of child development using EHV tools, teachers will be better equipped to handle disciplinary issues in primary and secondary schools. These practices are also useful for the higher education community, as teachers and educators from tertiary institutions may adopt these practices in their teaching and become reflective practitioners. Topics such as teacher morale and school climate and its impact on children are discussed in relation to building resilience, reflective capacities, and inner strength (shared values) using an intrinsic and transformational approach. The discussions also include perspectives from the neurosciences. With contributions from teachers and educators from the US, South Africa, Malaysia, Australia, Hong Kong and Mauritius, this edited volume addresses the challenges, strengths and weaknesses associated with daily teaching practices in primary and secondary schools and higher education institutions. The content is relevant to policymakers and researchers in child development studies, with a particular focus on the impact of silent sitting, mindful practices, and meditation on children's self-regulation and resilience. The authors collectively espouse that silent sitting techniques can help a child to grow and discover their hidden potential, thus enhancing their social, emotional, spiritual and physical capacities.

In Rosie's words, "The whole world changed with just one phone call...."

"I met Stacie for the first time in May. Her voice was meek and flat on the phone. She wasn't crying, but I heard it, the unmistakable sound of desperation. That was the first call, the single call that would change my life, and hers too, probably forever.

"I work with a nonprofit adoption agency in New Jersey. I fund their operation, provide outreach services, and they do the work. Finding families for kids who need them is beyond fulfilling, it is addictive. I like to help. I need to help. I help a lot, sometimes too much. "This is a true story about a girl named Stacie who called the adoption agency with a terrible problem. A lot of it won't make sense, at least logically. But sometimes sense runs deeper than logic. Nothing happens by chance. The events that follow, some dark and painful, changed me absolutely."
-Rosie O'Donnell

Comedian. Actress. Talk-show host. Producer. Benefactor. Editorial Director. Mother. Friend. Rosie O'Donnell has worn many hats. Now she takes on a new role: gifted writer and author, as she offers a brave and powerful account of an extraordinary experience that changed her life...

FIND ME

Part memoir, part mystery, FIND ME is a compelling and utterly original tale that will break your heart as it heals it. Told in Rosie's candid, moving voice, it is the story of a friendship between a troubled young woman and a celebrity obsessed with helping her. As this bizarre relationship unfolds—and unravels—so, too, does Rosie's history, forcing powerful acts of remembering and reckoning. This is a topsy-turvy tale of unforgettable characters, mistaken identities, and strange psychological illnesses that may or may not exist. Through it all, we come to know the author at levels that grow ever more surprising—and sometimes shocking—as Rosie reveals to us not only the way the past transforms the present, but how a single stranger thousands of miles away can spark irrational longings, profound obsession and, finally, the opportunity to put these forces to work in a healing way.

Finalist in the Professional Books category of the 2018 Nursery World Awards. This accessible guide shows early years professionals how to create safe, supportive environments for young children who have encountered adverse childhood experiences. Explaining the impact of trauma on young brains, it gives practical instructions on how to recognise and respond to abuse. These instructions are supported by exercises, case studies, and reflection points that help you identify and improve your methods. Current legislation, policy and procedure are clarified in clear, concise language, providing you with everything you'll need to work with your team towards a happier, safer future for the children in your care.