Search

Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) provides children with the right to express their views in matters that affect them, particularly those of an administrative and judicial nature. This paper examines the academic discourse in child protection research concerning how Article 12 of the CRC is implemented and how it is manifested in child protection service (CPS) casework practices. The systematic review was performed following the principles of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement and included 16 peer-reviewed articles published in English in academic journals from multiple scientific databases from January 2009 to January 2019 reporting primary research with children about their experiences of participation in CPS. Despite the widespread ratification of the CRC several decades ago, the studies in the current review establish a clear and predictable pattern of an inability of children to express themselves throughout CPS proceedings. Findings consistently indicate that children in different countries felt they were not being asked, listened to or heard, in some cases even regarding harmful and unsafe situations. We argue the academic discourse must move beyond these findings and discuss how research can contribute to dealing with these obstacles and improving practices by focussing on Article 12 in particular and human rights in general throughout CPS practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Although the law in England and Wales requires a child's wishes and feelings to be heard in LAC (Looked After Children) reviews, there remains limited research into how far this is achieved. This study interviewed 25 children and 16 foster carers to explore how well children understand and take part in reviews, and what factors impede this. The study found that levels of participation, as experienced by children and foster carers, were very low and the methods used were relatively ineffective. Children experienced significant barriers in engaging with the review process. The paper concludes that, as a vehicle of children's participation, LAC reviews are still not working well and calls for more attention to the views of children and young people and to the effectiveness of LAC reviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children commonly experience considerable disruption to their care when a parent is incarcerated. Maintaining relationships between children and their incarcerated parents can present particular challenges, and for a growing number of children, continuing contact with their incarcerated parent is a key issue. Most of the research about children's experiences of parental incarceration is filtered through adults who may or may not have spoken with children. This article draws on data collected for a research project which aimed to build an understanding of the needs and issues facing children and young people living in the Australian Capital Territory, who have experienced parental incarceration. This paper considers one key finding; children and young people's perspectives on contact with their incarcerated parent. This was reflected in four thematic clusters: quality of relationships; participation in decision making; the challenges and benefits of contact and practical issues. [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]

BSTRACT [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]