Encompassing a wide range of perspectives on childhood impairment and its social implications, Growing Up with Disability adopts a child-centered approach, including interviews with disabled young people and their own writing to enable their voices to be heard. Pre-school and school age children describe their behavior and feelings within their own families, substitute families and residential homes. The book explores how such children can be best protected, and how their quality of life can be improved. Using the social model of disability which identifies the barriers to inclusion faced by disabled people, contributors give examples of progressive practice, and examine the aspirations of young disabled people, their friendships, and how they come to terms with adolescence and the transition to adulthood.

The provision of respite care within families is a relatively new development and the ad hoc nature of individual schemes has resulted in a great variation in their character; relatively little research has been carried out into the policy and practice of this important development in community care. 'Share the Care' examines: the different ways in which respite care schemes operate, focusing in particular on the Share-the-Care service in Lothian; the experience of parents of children with learning difficulties of using the scheme; respite carers: who joins the scheme and why, their perceptions of its rewards and dissatisfactions, and their experience of social work support; the less positive effects of separation upon the children themselves; families facing an extended wait for respite; families who withdraw from the scheme.

In the wake of the profound changes in policy and practice around caring over the past ten years, this volume takes a fresh look at the social and legal status of carers. Demonstrating the scope and diversity of 'caring', the contributors highlight the positive aspects of caring and the interdependence of many caring relationships but also broach the sensitive and complex subject of `poor' care and the importance of identifying and meeting the needs of 'hidden carers'. Arguing that policy and practice must take account of both carers' and users' interests, the contributors re-evaluate the existing role of carers in developing new ideas in the planning and delivery of their services. Each of the book's chapters points to the future and looks at alternative and innovative ways forward in relation to thinking, policy and practice. This will make essential reading for social work and social science academics and students; professionals in the statutory, voluntary and independent sectors looking after the interests of carers; health and social care practitioners; nurses and care agency workers.

Drawing on one-to-one guided conversations with disabled children and follow-up interviews with their parents and siblings, this volume takes an in-depth look at the effects of disability on disabled children. Approaching this neglected subject through the disabled child's perspective, it considers: * disabled children's understanding of disability * the ways in which children negotiate the experience of disability in their everyday lives * children's perceptions of their relationships with professionals and their knowledge and views of service provision * children's aspirations for the future and their views on the type of support which might help achieve them * siblings' perceptions of the effects on them of having a disabled brother or sister. Informed by the social model of disability, Clare Connors and Kirsten Stalker identify and draw out the implications of their findings for social work and health services. Illustrating effective ways of communicating directly with disabled children, this will prove an invaluable resource for academics, policy makers and practitioners working with disabled children in health and social care settings.