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This paper examines how child welfare workers in England, Norway and the USA (California) perceive children's participation building on 91 qualitative interviews. First, analysing the data using Hart's ladder of children's participation, we found that all Norwegian workers perceived children's participation as some form of decision‐making, whereas 40% of English and 35% of US workers embraced views of children's participation that can be considered token or non‐participation. Second, we coded the data for main themes and found that child welfare workers in all three countries perceived children's participation as hearing the child's opinion and information gathering. The themes of age, maturity and ability to form an opinion also emerged from the data. English workers' reflections about children's participation were more nuanced than their Norwegian and US counterparts; and US workers understood children's participation as children providing valuable information during the investigation of a case more frequently than workers in England and Norway. We discuss the implications of these findings on future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's participation is essential to achieve good outcomes for children involved in child protection systems. Despite this, research has consistently found children report low levels of participation, are poorly consulted and feel inadequately involved in decisions about their lives. To explore how practitioners understand children's participation, 18 in‐depth interviews were conducted with statutory child protection practitioners in Australia. The interviews explored the ways child protection practitioners understand children's participation. Our findings show practitioners conceptualize children as rights holders and believe it is essential to hear directly from children about their needs and wishes to keep them safe. Practitioners identified the importance of transparent processes and decisions. Different understanding of participation emerged, with some participants talking about children as their central focus but not discussing meaningful participation of the child. It appeared that children's participation relied largely on the views and skills of individual workers, as well as their ability to incorporate meaningful participation in limited time and in complex practice environments where children's safety is a primary concern. Systemic changes to address time barriers, training practitioners to understand and implement participatory practice, and seeking children's input into service design, will support consistent and meaningful participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pressures of 'accelerated adulthood' are a critical challenge for young people ageing out of the care system. Despite the trauma related to their placement history, young people 'aging out' are expected to adapt to adulthood at younger age and faster pace than their non‐care peers, who enjoy an 'extended adolescence' a far more gradual progression into adulthood than previous generations. This article draws on first‐person narratives of care leavers in Ireland who have aged out of care and transitioned into independent living in a dedicated social housing programme to examine their strategies for coping with these competing pressures. It examines their worries about the sudden withdrawal of supports after they reach 18 years, which they characterized as a 'care cliff'. The emotional and practical challenges they faced when transitioning to independent living at a comparatively young age are explored, and strategies for mitigating these are identified. These include better preparing care leavers for this transition, maintaining supports for longer and withdrawing them in a more gradual way, which is tailored to meet the specific needs of each care leaver and grounded in more comprehensive after care planning than has been the norm in Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This article presents findings from a study with 467 child protection practitioners in Australia to determine their practice responses and views on children's participation. The practitioners, recruited from 5 state jurisdictions, completed an online survey responding to case studies designed to determine the extent to which they would seek and include children's perspectives in decision making, and their confidence in talking to children. We report on practitioners' responses to a case study of a 5‐year‐old girl with suspicious bruising where the mother reports domestic violence. Based on previous research, it was hypothesized that the child's young age would lead to low levels of confidence in consulting with the child and giving weight to her perspective. In contrast to the findings of other research, our results show that almost all workers report that they would speak with the child, would be confident doing so, and would give weight to the child's perspective. Our discussion explores the potential reasons for the difference in these findings compared with other research, including the experience of practitioners, increased child‐centred policy in Australia, multiple understandings of participation, and variation in children and practitioner views of participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A national reform of child protection practice in Israel includes the ambition of strengthening children's participation in intervention decisions carried out in formal committees, called planning, intervention and evaluation committees. A qualitative study was conducted of how well this was being achieved by following 21 case studies of families referred to the committees over 6 months. Data were collected from interviews with social workers, field observations of the committees and a document review. A systems approach was undertaken as a conceptual framework in order to allow a whole‐organizational understanding of what is happening in the field, and why. The key finding was a very limited realization of the reform's aim. Only seven children attended the committees, and they had little influence on decisions, which appears to have made them less co‐operative in implementing them. Those who did not attend rarely had their views conveyed to the committee by their social workers. The reform's lack of success is explained by being ill suited to the organizational working environment and culture. The analysis identified a number of systemic factors influencing the failure to give greater priority to children's views, including lack of skill and time, organizational messages about practice priorities and paternalistic ideology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]