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A national comparative study over one decade of children with intellectual disabilities living away from their natural parents
- Authors:
- McCONKEY Roy, KELLY Fionnola, GRAIG Sarah
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Social Work, 44(3), 2014, pp.714-728.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
Children with intellectual disabilities are more likely than non-disabled children to live away from their families. Internationally, the aspiration is for them to live at home or in alternative family placements. This study uses national data on over 700 children from the Republic of Ireland to monitor their living arrangements over a ten-year period. In that time, the numbers of children in care had fallen significantly and especially for those in residential settings aged ten years and over. Nonetheless, proportionately more children with intellectual disability of all ages moved away from their families, especially those aged ten to nineteen years. However, compared to non-disabled children, fewer were placed in foster-care, although the extent of this varied across the local health areas. Over the ten-year period, only small proportions of children returned to their families or moved from residential to foster-care. These findings are combined with those from international studies to identify changes in service provision and social work. A particular challenge is the promotion of cross-sector working between mainstream child and family services with specialist disability services. (Publisher abstract)