Search results for ‘Subject term:"vulnerable children"’ Sort:
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On Board!: boarding placements for vulnerable children: improving outcomes, transforming lives
- Authors:
- GREAT BRITAIN. Department for Children, Schools and Families, (Producer)
- Publisher:
- Great Britain. Department for Children, Schools and Families
- Publication year:
- 2009
- Pagination:
- DVD
- Place of publication:
- London
The Department for Children, Schools and Families, local authorities, boarding schools in the maintained and independent sectors, and educational charities are working in partnership to provide an extra option to support vulnerable children. Boarding Provision for Vulnerable Children (BPVC) aims to provide support, stability and opportunities that can improve outcomes for children in need, as well as for some of those who are looked after or on the edge of care. Boarding school placements already happen for some vulnerable children through charitable grants and bursaries. The benefits have been recognised through evaluation, and vulnerable children themselves have said they would like the option. With the support of the DCSF, local authorities can now extend this opportunity to increase stability and improve the life chances of many more young people. Through the stories of Jo, Archie and Sasha, this DVD explores how they came to board, their lives in a boarding school, and how boarding has changed their futures. By including the voices of families, social workers and headteachers who support these young people it aims to help local authority staff understand how this option could be a good addition to their own provision for vulnerable children.
Boarding pass
- Author:
- TAYLOR Amy
- Journal article citation:
- Community Care, 4.12.08, 2008, pp.18-19.
- Publisher:
- Reed Business Information
A government's Boarding Placements Pathfinder initiative scheme is helping councils place at-risk children in boarding schools. There have been mixed responses to the scheme. This article discusses the eligibility criteria - which some feel is too restrictive - and the low take up of the scheme.
An examination of the reasons for child removal in Clark County, Nevada
- Author:
- PELTON Leroy H.
- Journal article citation:
- Children and Youth Services Review, 30(7), July 2008, pp.787-799.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
The factors precipitating child placement were examined in two randomly selected samples of protective custody cases that were brought before the family court in Clark County, Nevada during a one-year period. Methamphetamine use, homelessness, lack of resources, and physical abuse were factors frequently prompting placement. Homelessness was as prevalent in cases not involving meth or other drug use as in those that did. Police were involved in a large proportion of the cases, and children were more frequently placed in foster care facilities when they were. In many cases, the arrest and incarceration of parents on outstanding warrants unrelated to the immediate safety of the children precipitated the need for placement. Parents frequently received counselling for their substance abuse and other issues, but were rarely offered concrete assistance or any significant help with housing. The reallocation of resources from Child Haven, the emergency placement congregate care facility in which most children were initially placed, to the provision of direct assistance with housing and other concrete services, is recommended and discussed.
Boarding time
- Author:
- LITTLE Mathew
- Journal article citation:
- Children and Young People Now, 20.2.08, 2008, pp.24-25.
- Publisher:
- Haymarket Business Publications Ltd
In a high-profile pathfinder scheme to send vulnerable children to boarding schools, only eight children have taken part in its first year of operation. This article looks at the rationale of the scheme and the reservations of some local authorities. One state boarder also explains why she feels going to boarding school has worked for her.
Challenges of grandparent custody of children at risk in New Zealand
- Author:
- WORRALL Jill
- Journal article citation:
- Families in Society, 87(4), October 2006, pp.546-554.
- Publisher:
- The Alliance for Children and Families
The phenomenon of grandparents assuming responsibility for raising their grandchildren is growing internationally. The New Zealand Children Young Persons and Their Families Act (1989) led international child welfare legislation in mandating extended family placement for children needing care. The Act responded to Maori concerns that Maori children were being disproportionately placed with European caregivers. Maori children are still overrepresented in state care statistics; however, they are almost twice as likely to be placed with grandparents or other extended family than are European children. Psychological, cultural, legal, and socioeconomic factors impact on how kinship care is experienced. The emphasis of this research was qualitative, with a primary view of accessibility for the participant group and shaping social work policy and practice with these families.
Reasoning and bias: heuristics in safety assessment and placement decisions for children at risk
- Authors:
- ENOSH Guy, BAYER-TOPILSY Tali
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Social Work, 45(6), 2015, pp.1771-1787.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
Whether the decision-making process for children at risk is biased against families from lower socio-economic or minority statuses remains a vexing question for social work practice and research. This study successfully isolates the subjective decision-making process and the intervening effect of overexposure of disadvantaged families to the welfare system by utilising a vignette-based factorial survey. The vignettes were drawn from actual welfare files of high, low and ambiguous risk and then edited to correspond with the experimental manipulation. One hundred and five child welfare case workers were asked to evaluate the vignettes, as follows: (i) to assess the level of risk to the child (‘subjective risk’) and (ii) to decide whether they would recommend out-of-home placement. Children of minority and low socio-economic groups were more likely to be assessed as being at risk and were more likely to be removed from the home. Furthermore, even for the vignettes of high ‘objective risk’, after statistically controlling for the subjective risk assessment, families from a low socio-economic background were more likely to have their children removed from home. Important implications to social work practice and education which emerge from this innovative study are discussed. (Publisher abstract)
Attachment representations in late-adopted children: the use of narrative in the assessment of disorganisation, mentalising and coherence of mind
- Authors:
- PACE Cecilia Serena, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Adoption and Fostering, 38(3), 2014, pp.255-270.
- Publisher:
- Sage
Late-adopted children have often suffered a wide range of deprivations in their pre-adoption lives. These early adverse experiences can have a negative effect on children’s attachment representations even after they have been adopted. This study assesses the attachment representations of 61 late-adopted children over the first year of placement, exploring the risk and protective factors of age at placement, length of adoption and gender. The attachment representations were captured using the Manchester Completion Attachment Story Task (MCAST), a doll-play narrative that provides four different attachment classifications – secure, avoidant, ambivalent and disorganised – and three global scorings for disorganisation, mentalising and coherence of mind. The age of adoption was negatively associated with disorganisation, while length of placement was positively correlated with mentalising. Males seemed to be more vulnerable to insecurity and disorganisation than females. The data also suggested that for children placed after the attachment-sensitive phase, the longer the time spent in the adoptive families and being female were protective factors. Moreover, attachment narratives seemed to be a useful tool to explore the inner world of late-adopted children from the first year of placement. (Publisher abstract)
Evaluation of a newborn screen for predicting out-of-home placement
- Authors:
- BROWNELL Marni D., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Child Maltreatment, 16(4), November 2011, pp.239-249.
- Publisher:
- Sage
This study examined the value of a screening tool for new-born babies to predict family risk. It evaluated its validity for identifying risk of out-of-home placement, as a proxy for maltreatment and determined which items were most predictive of out-of-home placement. All infants born in Manitoba, Canada from 2000 to 2002 were followed until March 2004 (N = 40,886). Of the study population, 18% were not screened and 3% were placed in out-of-home care at least once during the study period. Infants not screened were twice as likely to enter care compared to those screened (5% vs. 2.5%). Infants screening at risk were 15 times more likely to enter care than those screening not at risk. Sensitivity and specificity of the screen were 77.6% and 83.3%, respectively. Screening efforts to identify vulnerable families missed a substantial portion of families needing support. The screening tool demonstrated moderate predictive validity for identifying children at risk of entering care in the first years of life. Implications for future research are discussed.
Care and permanence planning for looked after children in Scotland: Scottish Government response
- Author:
- SCOTLAND. Scottish Government
- Publisher:
- Scotland. Scottish Government
- Publication year:
- 2011
- Pagination:
- 19p.
- Place of publication:
- Edinburgh
The Care and Permanence Planning for Looked After Children in Scotland report prepared by the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) discovered that, for the majority of children, it took more than two years from their first contact with services to achieve permanence through adoption or a Parental Responsibilities Order. It took more than 4 years for 44 of the 100 children followed. This response sets out the areas for improvement identified in the SCRA report and outlines the key areas of work which will be taken forward by the Scottish Government and its strategic partners to address these issues. The work will include recognising and capturing the good practice and innovation already taking place in Scotland. This response is intended to provide an opportunity to discuss specific measures with other “corporate parents”. Five improvement levers are discussed: assessment tools, care standards, child’s plan, dissemination of good practice, and whole systems.
Care matters in Northern Ireland: a bridge to a better future: consultation report: summary and analysis of responses
- Author:
- NORTHERN IRELAND. Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety
- Publisher:
- Northern Ireland. Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety
- Publication year:
- 2009
- Pagination:
- 48p.
- Place of publication:
- Belfast
The 'Care matters in Northern Ireland: a bridge to a better future' consultation document, setting out a strategy that considered how to support young people in and on the edge of care to achieve their full potential, was issued in 2007. It identified six main areas for change to improve outcomes for looked after children in Northern Ireland: strengthening support to families and children at risk of being taken into care while ensuring that children are properly protected, ensuring that children coming into care are in appropriate and stable placements, ensuring that Health and Social Care Trusts have the necessary arrangements in place to act as corporate parents for children in care, improving educational opportunities for young people with experience of care, providing children in care with opportunities to enjoy social and developmental activities, and strengthening support to young people leaving care. This document outlines the 52 consultation responses received. A cross-Departmental Programme Board has now been established to oversee future implementation of the strategy, and it is anticipated that multi-disciplinary, multi-sectoral subgroups will be created to focus on specific areas and how best to progress recommendations, taking into consideration the issues highlighted by respondents during the consultation.