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This 18-month longitudinal Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) (Smith, Flowers, and Larkin 2009) research study explored how youth workers' experiences of spirituality impacted their practice. Nine youth workers in secular contexts in the UK were interviewed three times to capture the work-related transitions they were undergoing. Each interview had a specific focus linked to the three research objectives: to identify youth workers' experiences of youth work practice, to explore youth workers' experiences of spirituality and how (or if) spirituality impacts their youth work practice. This IPA study found that spirituality impacted youth workers' practice even with youth workers who do not see themselves as spiritual. Four superordinate themes relevant to youth workers experiences of spirituality were identified: Spiritual Needs, The Spirit of Youth Workers, The Changing Youth Work Identity and Redundancy Induced Loss. When asked about spirituality youth workers spoke about redundancy, restructures and their experience of loss, bereavement, and professional identity. This research was conducted authentically with the topic of spirituality and with the IPA approach. As a Spiritually Reflexive Researcher, I used freewriting techniques (Elbow 1973) in reflective journals throughout data collection and analysis. Bracketing interviews with a skilled bracketer (Rolls and Relf 2006) identified bias or areas for reflection unknown to the researcher. The two reflexive techniques led to the development of two experiential models: The Researcher's Experiential Data Collection Journey and The Participants' Experiential Research Journey. Whilst the youth work sector, within faith-based and secular youth work, is faced with more redundancies and cuts to the public sector, much can be learnt from the experiences of loss from the youth workers. The consideration of a spiritually compassionate redundancy process should be part of all organisations as they consider the bereavement-like impact of redundancy on staff.

This thesis is concerned with the life histories and motivations of youth workers and what these mean for professional youth work in the UK. The research is based on a novel methodological approach, combining narrative and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. It involved conducting a series of three interviews with 16 qualified and student youth workers to trace the importance of life histories in shaping and maintaining their vocational motivations. 'Borders' - the significance of intersecting structural barriers - and 'reparative impulse' emerged as significant themes. Given these life histories and motivations, the thesis contends that youth work can be regarded as an 'ontological praxis' which interactively draws on practitioners' selfhoods and living histories in developing relational learning and critical meaning with young people. Discussions regarding the 'use of self' lead into analysis of participants' accounts of their experiences of professional formation, noting that many qualifying youth work courses do not consistently and systematically address the 'use of self' in their curricula. The thesis proceeds to consider the influence of neoliberal policy frameworks upon youth workers' practices and their professional and personal subjectivities. However, despite the clear devastation wrought by neoliberal austerity, and its corrosive impact upon the telos (core purpose) of youth work, participants appeared to continue to maintain a passionate and psychically-entrenched commitment to practice. Moreover, many expressed continuing optimism regarding possibilities for its future. In advancing a more criticalist hermeneutic, I join with participants in the Freirean tradition underpinning youth work practice of 'naming the(ir) world'. However, in doing so, I contend that 'Freirean naming' is, of itself, insufficient. I therefore integrate Foucauldian perspectives on governmentality to develop a novel dialectic synthesis that highlights the deeply embedded inculcation of neoliberal rationalities and technologies in participants' personal-professional subjectivities. I argue that these mechanisms, including 'technologies of vocation' and 'technologies of hope', when 'unnamed' risk becoming manipulatively affective devices of 'cruel optimism' which continuously contort and manipulate respondents' subjectivities and motivations towards youth work practice. Such technologies cause youth workers to act on themselves and young people in ways that unwittingly contribute to the very neoliberal machinations of oppression which much of the Profession abhors - machinations which ironically have, in many instances, been responsible for contributing to the original catalysation of respondents' sense of vocation to youth work practice. Implications for professional education and practice are also discussed. These include a call for professional qualifying courses to enable explorations of youth workers' living histories and enacted identities in fostering critically reflexive insights which promote ethical practice with young people.

The discourse of child participation stemming from the UNCRC has been criticised for adopting modernist ideas of personhood which over emphasise the child as an autonomous, independent individual, overlooking the importance of relationships and interdependence of actors. It is argued as a result, that much child participation falsely searches for ways to access the pure, inner, authentic, voice of the child, free from mediation by adults. So whilst voice is not synonymous with participation, a critical exploration of 'children's voice' which takes account of emerging relational conceptions of childhood and child participation is now necessary. This thesis builds on these recent criticisms of voice, positing that dominant models of child participation have implicitly assumed child to adult communication occurs monologicaly, as the transmission of information from child to an adult. I argue that transmission based notions of communication overlook the role context plays in the production of meaning, and the potentially polyphonic nature of communication. Using the epistemic perspective of dialogism, I develop a relational and intersubjective model of 'children's voice'. With this, I argue that 'children's voice' can be understood as an intersubjective act of knowledge creation, occurring between at least two intersectional dynamic standpoint-identities, and interrelated with mutual recognition and potentially occurring both within and across generational boundaries.

Background: Kinship care is the long-term caring arrangement within the family constellation for children who cannot remain with their birth parents. Despite being the most prevalent alternative care arrangement for children worldwide, there is a lack of research into kinship care. Few studies focus on the child's perspectives, and very few explicitly focus on the meaning of permanence for the children. These children often have similar needs as others that have experienced abuse and neglect. Additionally, they must manage complex dislocated family relationships, and most experience financial hardship with very little support. The little kinship care research that has been done reflects a preoccupation with comparing kinship care as an alternative to state care rather than a family set up within its own right. Also, research, legislation and practice for kinship care has been founded on the concerns and debates for adoption and fostering processes. This typically produces a range of atheoretical, descriptive outcome studies that often provide conflicting answers by focussing on the what rather than the how. This can cause ambivalence for practitioners, academics, and policymakers. Objective: This is the first study that has solely sought the views of children in kinship care in England. It explores the lived experiences of 19 children in such arrangements. More specifically, it focuses on kinship care as a permanence option. The study does not presuppose certain theories of permanence, childhood, or family. Instead, theoretical explanations emerge from the children's own valuations of their family lives. This can enable social workers to find more attuned ways to support, protect, and permanency plan for children out with the traditional concepts of permanence, family, childhood, and care that are often taken for granted. Methodology/methods: The study's innovative approach utilises critical realism as an underlabourer, and Sayer's (2011) work on reasoning in particular. By using a dialogical participative approach, different methods such as child-led tours, photo-elicitation, and visual methods were used to capture the children's valuations of their lives. Utilising a range of theories provided empirical certainty with an interpretivist awareness of subjectivities. Results: In their family lives, children in kinship care navigate the in-between of the purported binary positions often ascribed to care, kinship, permanence, autonomy, and recognition. Through thematic analysis and retroduction, it was found that the children manage the mechanisms of 'Connection/Separation', 'Recognition/(Mis)recognition', 'Care & Protection/Independence & Risk'. Conclusions/Implications: By using a range of methods, children are competent in giving nuanced and sophisticated understandings of their own experiences, needs, and intentions. Also, privileging children's accounts of family, care and childhood, reinvigorates the current policy and practice debates in UK social work. Children's views challenge the dominant adult-centric framing of the social work debates that emphasise the professionalisation of kinship care as a placement and a process-driven service. The study also reinvigorates the debates regarding permanence. The children show that kinship care arrangements disrupt both notions of substitute care and also birth family care. They provide insight into the fluidity inherent in their family's composition and the roles and responsibilities for their ongoing care across it. The children navigate and manage these relationships, their sense of autonomous interdependence, and their sense of permanence across the family network and, at times, away from it. Traditional notions of placement, contact, and life-story work are (mis)recognitions of their family lives. Therefore, more attuned recognition can provide more meaningful support for children in kinship care where multiple family relationships endure but are also often in flux.

Background: Challenging behaviours (CBs) such as aggression, self-injury, or property destruction are commonly displayed by children with intellectual/developmental disabilities (IDDs). Such behaviours often develop early and persist without intervention, making effective early assessment and intervention important. The most widely used assessment and intervention approaches for CB for individuals with IDD are based upon Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) and rely on an understanding of the function of the individual's behaviour. However, there is little UK research examining such assessment and intervention approaches for young children with IDD who display CB, or the involvement of their families in this process. As a result, this thesis aimed to explore the evidence base for the use of function-based interventions (FBIs, i.e., behavioural interventions based on prior functional assessment [FA] identifying the contingencies which maintain CB) with young children with IDD and consider how such approaches can be utilised within a UK context via extensive collaboration (within clinical work) with family carers. Methodology: Previous literature relating to FBIs for children with IDD was examined in a systematic review and meta-analysis combining both single case and group design research (Chapter Two). In addition, literature relating to the use of telehealth (i.e., support provided across distance via technology which may provide a useful method of adapting approaches for a UK context where behavioural expertise is scarce) to train stakeholders such as family carers and teachers in ABA interventions was examined in a second systematic review (Chapter Three). Following this, two empirical studies utilising single case design methodology were conducted examining the feasibility of training family carers (in-person for four family carers in Chapter Four and via telehealth for two family carers in Chapter Five) to complete FAs and FBIs with their children with IDD. A final empirical study examined the social validity of the use of telehealth for behavioural approaches in the UK via a four round Delphi consultation with 11 professionals and six family carers. Results Fifty-two single case and 8 group design articles were reviewed in Chapter Two and all of the FBIs in these articles achieved at least a medium effect size in relation to reductions in child CB (overall Tau U = 0.785, 95% CI: 0.729-0.840 for single case design interventions, and overall glass ∆ = 0.62, 95% CI: 0.94-0.29 for group design interventions). However, significant methodological quality issues were noted across the evidence base limiting the strength of conclusions. Chapter Three identified an emergent evidence base for the use of telehealth for training stakeholders (e.g., family carers, teachers, ABA tutors) in ABA approaches (such as FAs, FBIs, teaching techniques) across 20 studies. Training most often involved initial training sessions delivered via videoconferencing with supplemental in-vivo coaching during implementation of procedures. Training resulted in high but variable levels of trainee fidelity and positive outcomes for the focal persons supported by trainees (e.g., meaningful assessment outcomes, reduction in CB or increases in skills). However, methodological quality issues across the evidence base again limited the strength of conclusions for Chapter Three. Chapters Four and Five together demonstrated emergent feasibility of training family carers in FAs and FBIs in the UK where training was provided in-person (Chapter Four) and via telehealth (Chapter Five). Significant difficulties were encountered with recruitment and retention across both studies, limiting the generalisability and strength of the findings. Various challenges were encountered with the implementation of intervention procedures in Chapter Four, therefore Chapter Five focused on FA procedures only. However, family carers were able to implement FA procedures in both studies with greater than 80% fidelity overall. Social validity was found to be high across both studies, though not meeting feasibility criterion in Chapter Five. Finally, Chapter Six found that the use of telehealth for behavioural support was generally viewed favourably by the professionals and family carers who took part in the Delphi consultation. Consensus was reached on 36 items for professionals and 22 items for family carers relating to factors that would be influential to their likelihood of using telehealth for behavioural support. Both advantages (e.g., in relation to logistics, greater ease of involving multiple stakeholders) and barriers (e.g., relating to perceived quality of support, ethical concerns with data protection and confidentiality) were highlighted, with solutions to barriers suggested which involve both individual practitioner approaches (e.g., accessing training) and system level approaches (e.g., national guidance for the use of telehealth). Conclusion: Throughout this thesis, extensive collaboration with family carers was utilised at all stages, and approaches were adapted for the UK context in a number of ways including the use of telehealth. The evidence base for FBIs was noted to be extensive but with significant methodological limitations, and an emerging evidence base was identified for the use of telehealth to train stakeholders in ABA approaches, though again with significant methodological limitations. Emergent feasibility was demonstrated for training family carers both in-person and via telehealth in FA and FBI methodology, though small sample sizes and high participant drop out limits the generalisability of these findings. A number of challenges were encountered relating both to the practical implementation of approaches and the research evaluation, with tensions between clinical practice and research noted which had not previously been documented in the ABA literature. The social validity of the use of telehealth for behavioural support was confirmed via a Delphi consultation with professionals and family carers in which a number of useful recommendations were made for minimising barriers relating to the use of telehealth and maximising advantages for both practitioners and families. Suggestions are made for further research arising from the findings of this thesis, including the extension and refinement of procedures used for training family carers in order to further confirm feasibility and extend evaluation to the effectiveness of these approaches. Additional work could also further describe any research-practice tensions within ABA and consider ways to minimise these barriers in order to ensure that research is sensitive to clinical practice issues and therefore useful for the field.

Social pedagogy is a conceptual framework which takes both an educational and social perspective to addressing social problems, and is embedded within the children's services and wider social workforce in many European countries. By contrast, England and its children's services organisations are without a social pedagogy heritage. This study fills a gap in the evidence base for, and definition of, social pedagogy in England by exploring its potential challenges and benefits within children's services settings. The research takes an exploratory approach to the influence of social pedagogy using a Council's children's services as a case study. The study utilises convergent methods of data collection, analysis and interpretation, including questionnaires, focus groups and semi-structured interviews. The results and conclusions make a significant contribution to the social pedagogy knowledge through a new model of the practice framework for social pedagogy - the 'Star Model', a proposed definition of social pedagogy, identification of social pedagogy's unique contribution to children's services and the organisational conditions necessary and a proposed approach to its development within the multiple professional fields of the children's services workforce.

Young people in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria (NDN) are requesting the Federal Government to embrace and formulate an inclusive national youth policy to tackle young peoples challenging issues. The African Youth Charter also discusses young peoples privilege to engage in issues that concern them. This research deploys a qualitative investigation based on a social constructivist approach to analyse and explore young peoples engagement as a participatory factor in the implementation and formulation of policies concerning young people in NDN. The aim of the study was to comprehend the processes that challenge and motivate young peoples involvement processes and policy procedures at the regional and federal levels. This study uses focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews with a total of 30 participants, comprising 21 young people (aged 16-24), 4 members of civil society organisations, and 5 official policy makers. The findings present different views and approaches of policy makers concerning young people. The research acknowledged diverse elements that contribute to this difference. The study centres on the distinction in policy procedures of Nigeria, Niger Delta region. While for some regions the main discussion is the formulation phase of policy, this research presents that in NDN the major deliberation is at the phase of policy implementation. Although young people in NDN are to some extent involved in formulating policy, as they are consulted at the implementation phase, they question the Nigerian governments commitment to genuinely engaging young people in the decision-making process. In view of this disparity between engagement theory and practice, this research finds that it is essential for young people to be effectively included in policy procedures and appeals for young peoples political capital. Conclusively, this research advocates a re-evaluation of the apolitical (politically neutral) standing sometimes attributed to young people in NDN and a commensurate reorientation of youth policy to extend the scope of involvement for young people in policy formation.

At a time of unprecedented highs in global migration and displacement, this study explores the lives of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people (UASC) in England, asking how they construct and experience belonging. Against a backdrop of increased immigration restrictions in the UK, a policy-enhanced ‘hostile environment,' and the simultaneous duty of care which local authorities have to all children, including UASC, this study considers how the multiple, diverse threads of belonging interact and intersect with the relevant ideas of learning, identity, social connections, and space in the lives of four unaccompanied girls. As the majority of UASC are male, unaccompanied girls have been largely overlooked in research and in practice, and this study helps to fill that gap. This study takes an epistemological approach of social constructionism and takes into account the right of a child to be “properly researched” as based on the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child. Within this approach, I use traditional data collection methods – interviews and focus groups – which are innovatively adapted from a more structured question-and-answer presentation to a more casual, open format and include brief English lessons and mind maps. As the unaccompanied girls in this study are English language learners, these adaptations are not only helpful for encouraging engagement in the research, but ethically necessary in ensuring that they understand the research in which they are involved. In this way, the research process is more accessible to the unaccompanied girls and co-constructed alongside them where possible and appropriate. This is in line with a more relational ethics approach which seeks to go beyond “do no harm” by building trust and maintaining ongoing consent with vulnerable groups. This thesis makes a contribution to research around UASC by developing understandings of spaces of interaction and belonging through relations. Alongside exploration into everyday learning, identity and social connections, it highlights the uniqueness of an unaccompanied girl's constructions and experiences. Findings also reveal how practices around food and faith can contribute to the construction of spaces of belonging and demonstrate that experiences within a setting such as college are comprised of social as well as academic interactions, which can also contribute to constructions of belonging. Finally, this research illustrates the powerful influence of the temporary in social interactions and its positive impact in building belonging, and it reflects on gender in UASC literature and the usefulness of ‘belonging' as a lens for research.

This thesis takes a feminist approach to researching the use of self with fifteen cisgendered professional youth and community workers who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or queer (LGBQ). It examined their understanding of their journeys towards their current sexual identities and how they used these identities and other aspects of their self in their youth work. The core values of youth work require professionals to develop reciprocal and authentic relationships as they work alongside young people in young people’s journeys towards adulthood. This study, focussing on the experiences of these LGBQ youth workers, examined how the self was used on a daily basis within their professional contexts. Rich data was gathered through semi-structured in-depth interviews with these fifteen women who all worked in the north of England. A template approach to thematic analysis (drawing on King & Horrocks, 2010) was used to draw out five key themes from stories told by these women youth workers. These included: first the resilience of these women through their own childhood and adolescence as they came to an awareness of their LGBQ sexuality. The second: the usefulness of understanding the experiences and current identities of these youth workers from an intersectional approach as each women’s experiences was a unique combination of a range of socioeconomic and cultural factors with their LGBQ identity such as social class, ethnicity, religion and age. The third theme was the impact of colleagues and partner agencies as the youth workers negotiated how to share important information regarding their LGBQ sexuality and other personal matters with young people. The fourth theme: the importance of their continual and critical reflections on the fluid boundaries between the personal and professional lives as they developed useful and transformational relationships with young people. The final theme the challenge of working in a context where change continually impacts on their working situation. Many of these themes will be useful for trainers and managers of youth and community workers. Some themes developed knowledge already in the field whilst other themes were new insights for youth and community work educators, managers. The new themes include bringing a focus to LGBQ issues within the youth work literature; a focus on intersectional theory in understanding how youth workers name their selves (as discussed in Hatton & Monro, 2019) and understanding how LGBQ youth workers apply boundaries and ethics in their day-to-day work. It is hoped that the findings from this research will assist in supporting all youth workers as they use their self, their myriad different and varied identities, in their professional role. This is a role which is important in supporting young people in their journeys from adolescence to adulthood and in supporting young people to be much needed catalysts for change in the early 21st century.

Independent advocacy is a tool to support children and young people in decision making, a right afforded under Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). For disabled children and young people with complex communication needs in the United Kingdom, specialist advocacy is often referred to as ‘non-instructed’ advocacy. To date, there is very little ‘academic’ research in this field, and this study seeks to address this gap. Mixed methodology is utilised to examine advocacy and ‘non-instructed advocacy through a literature review, an ethnographical study of the advocacy relationship of five children and young people and their advocates, and semi-structured interviews with eleven advocates using vignettes to replicate advocacy cases. Taking the elements of Article 12 namely expression, support and regard, the advocacy relationship with disabled children and young people with complex communication needs is considered in the context of the wider ecosystem of the child or young person utilising Systems Theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). I recognise Lundy's factors (2007) of ‘voice, space, audience and influence’ within Article 12 for all children and young people and add an additional factor of ‘value’ in relation to disabled children and young people’s participation based on my research evidence. This research is innovative in that disabled children and young people are themselves participants in the ethnographical study. As a result of the research, I seek to reframe and challenge the term ‘non-instructed’ and suggest ‘instruction’ is on a ‘continuum’. I conclude that advocates have a fourfold role of observer, conduit, facilitator and challenger in the realisation of the rights of children and young people, particularly those with complex communication needs. I propose a conceptual framework to support future advocacy practice with children and young people with complex communication needs.

This is the thesis component of a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) by Published Works at the University of Salford, United Kingdom (UK). The overall submission is a portfolio of seven published works supported by five associated publications and a critical appraisal focusing on the contribution that child-rights based legislation, children’s advocacy and research into child health topics can collectively play in improving the health and wellbeing of children and young people in the UK and globally. The published works are listed and referenced within this thesis but not contained within it. All the published works referenced within this thesis are linked to from the University of Salford Institutional Repository (USIR) system under author, “Rowland, Professor Andrew G”. Legislation and Regulations introduced by the Parliaments, together with common law, sets out what is lawful and unlawful in the UK; children’s rights need to be promoted and protected to give the best possible present and future to young people; and child health can only be improved to the maximum potential with optimal overarching child welfare. It is only when the laws in a society properly protect children and young people, there is advocacy on a micro- and macro- basis by healthcare professionals and members of the community, and when there is a focus on child-health a micro- and macro-level, that the health and wellbeing of children and young people will be optimised. Improving the lives of children and young people in the UK and globally requires a coordinated focus on innovations in three inextricably linked areas: child rights law, children’s advocacy and child health. With a clinical, community and research focus on these three areas, truly child-safe communities can be created in which children and young people can develop and flourish happily, healthily and safe from harm.

Armed conflict and displacement have immeasurably harmful effects on children and their families. They constrain children’s opportunities to play, to learn through play, and for their unique potential to flourish. Nonetheless, there is a lack of in-depth research conducted into how conflict and displacement affect young refugee children’s play and experiences of childhood in different host environments. Through ethnographic case studies of four young Iraqi and Syrian child refugees in a northern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, this thesis presents unique insights into the children’s family lives, their play and the violations of their rights in Lebanon. Underpinned by Froebelian principles of the integrity of childhood in its own right, the thesis theorises how the concept of ‘childhood’ is being constructed in Lebanon during the global refugee crisis. It identifies possible ways to improve play opportunities for refugee children who are living ‘temporarily’ in the northern suburbs of Beirut, arguing that they are in a state of ‘in between-ness’. The study follows a ‘day in the life’ methodology with four Iraqi and Syrian case study refugee children (4-8 years old) and their families, supplemented by questionnaire data from Iraqi, Syrian and Lebanese adults (n=100), semi-structured interviews with professionals working with refugee children in Lebanon, and an observation in a school for refugee children in Beirut’s Northern suburbs. Findings point to continuing children’s rights infringements in Lebanon, including poverty, limited access to physical, emotional and mental healthcare, poor living conditions, child labour, poor quality education and/or no school attendance, family separation and the destruction of communities. With lifelines falling short of ensuring children’s basic rights, contradictions between child and refugee policies, tensions between diverse organisations and the Lebanese government, and with limited access to play resources, growing fears and increased parental surveillance, particularly with regard to girls, children’s play and embodied experiences are being restricted. However, despite many hardships, play endures, providing children with a means to escape from their current liminal state through media, transformation and imagination.

Rationale: The present study aimed to investigate the feasibility of using Video Enhanced Reflective Practice (VERP) as a training method to improve outcomes of school-based mentoring. Meta-analytical studies have shown that youth mentoring produces mostly modest positive outcomes for the young person (mentee). Mentor-mentee relationship quality and mentor retention are considered two key factors that moderate youth mentoring outcomes. Previous studies highlight the need for mentor training and theory suggests that mentor training could improve mentee outcomes by improving mentor-mentee relationship quality and mentor retention. The present study introduced VERP as a potential training program to support youth mentors develop the quality of their relationships with their mentees through improving their skills of interaction/communication. Method: This study adopted a mixed methods design. Quantitative analysis aimed to investigate changes in participant attuned/discordant interactions after completing a VERP training program. Three out of four youth mentors recruited through a local youth mentoring program completed the VERP program and their pre/post intervention attuned/discordant interactions were compared using paired t-tests. Post-intervention the four mentors who began the study gave their views of the VERP process through a semi-structured interview. This included the mentor who dropped out early so that their experience was not excluded. Thematic Analysis was used to examine themes and patterns within mentor responses. Results: Inferential statistics did not show any significant changes in attuned or discordant interactions after completing the VERP program. However, qualitative analysis indicated that the mentors felt that VERP resulted in positive outcomes including: improved mentoring relationship, improved mentor confidence, improved mentoring skills, improved mentee outcomes and improvements outside of the mentoring dyad. The mentors also provided valuable insight into their experiences of the different stages of the VERP program. Conclusion: This study recommends VERP as a positive training experience. There is a call for future research to further investigate the connection between VERP training and improved mentee outcomes by using randomised controlled trials with higher numbers of participants.

Parents worldwide have long been confronted by the demands of participating in paid work whilst also fulfilling their caring responsibilities. Over the years, the United Kingdom's legal framework has significantly changed to address the evolving social reality and the European Union has played a pivotal role in this through the gradual development of the reconciliation of work and family life principle. Despite the introduction of a dynamic set of policies and measures focusing on the tension inherent in juggling between work and caring responsibilities, studies show that an increasing number of working parents are relying on the provision of informal childcare by grandparents. Whilst recognising the valuable contributions of the existing work-life balance measures towards the promotion of a family-friendly workplace, this research argues that little attention has been paid to the welfare of the child and to the role that grandparents tend to play in this area. Accordingly, this research makes a case for the adoption of a child-friendly reconciliation framework. In view of that, this research is organised as follows. The first three chapters argue that, as the public/private dichotomy is an unsuitable theoretical framework, the capabilities approach and the ethic of care theory should be adopted as the combined language to underpin the reconciliation principle. The following two chapters make a case for the adoption of a child-friendly reconciliation framework, to include the need to recognise and value the vital role that an increasing number of grandparents are playing in this area through the provision of informal childcare. Against this background, the next three chapters undertake a comprehensive analysis of the main work-life balance measures – leave, time and childcare – to reveal the extent to which the underlying theme of child welfare is missing from the equation. Finally, the last chapter makes suggestions towards a child-friendly reconciliation framework.

This research explores what motivates adults to volunteer in work with young people in England. An exploratory research methodology was adopted (Sarantakos, 2013), underpinned by a socio-cultural perspective (Lave and Wenger, 1991) to investigate adults’ motivation to volunteer and the learning experiences that they have through participating in volunteering activities (Duguid, Mundel and Schugurensky, 2013). Two research instruments were utilised in the study, the Volunteer Functions Inventory (Clary et al., 1998), which was administered online, and focus groups delivered utilising a metaplanning approach (Matheson and Matheson, 2009). This research builds on the literature regarding volunteering and volunteer motivation to critically challenge the ‘panacea’ theory (Baines and Hardill, 2008) and it identifies the factors which affect the extent to which a volunteering opportunity can meet the needs of volunteers and their client group. Furthermore, this research explores volunteer motivation, identifying that this can change over a volunteer’s life. This ongoing motivation is effected by the personal, cultural and structural (Thompson, 2012) context in which volunteering takes place. Since the 1990s the promotion of volunteering has been a focus of Governmental policy (Rochester, Howlett and Ellis Paine, 2010; Dean, 2016). This research identifies that a good infrastructure for people to volunteer in is needed, enabling volunteers to participate in communities of practice and learn from professionals (Wenger, 1998). This includes ensuring that not only are there a range of opportunities in any geographical area but also across the spectrum of work with young people.

This is a qualitative study examining three of the ten English Local Authorities who implemented the intervention Multi Systemic Therapy (MST) in their Children’s Services Department in 2008. The research considers the implementation of MST and the consequent organisational impact as the services mobilised and then matured. One service closed at two years, another at five years and a third service was sustained and expanded. The research explores the concept of ‘evidence based practice’ in contemporary social work before considering and applying implementation science theory to understand the implementation process in the three sites. A grounded theory methodological approach (Charmaz, 2006, 2014) was taken to analyse twelve participant interviews across the three Authorities, including one with the national programme lead for MST. The findings propose new theoretical categories which extend understanding of implementation: The high collaborative environment and The hostile environment. These two environmental categories are especially relevant when linked to leadership. Both categories demonstrate the importance of the contextual setting within which implementation takes place. The high collaborative environment enabled the facilitation of the strategic and operational space for the intervention to successfully embed and sustain itself in the Authority continuing to provide MST. Taking a values based approach connecting to both operational practice and desired strategic outcomes significantly assisted in the implementation. A hostile environment is conceptualised as a context of threat, strategic change and uncertainty where the intervention is poorly placed. In the first setting this led to early closure as the service could not find a fit within the Authority. In the second setting, a successful mobilisation followed by a period of positive performance, could not sustain MST in the long term as the strategic and operational context changed negatively. The findings support and contribute to the understanding of the category of Leadership for implementation (Aarons 2016). Leadership which is attentive, relational, collaborative and perseverant appears most conducive to the successful implementation outcomes. Consistent leadership at the MST steering group is identified as vital as it is in this forum where the high collaborative environment and leadership for implementation were evident. In conclusion the research considers the implications of the findings and what these mean for practice and for the implementation of evidence based interventions in new settings as well as for the sustainability of interventions post mobilisation.

Following economic crisis in 2008, a new Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government came into power in 2010 and introduced various measures and policies which prioritised reducing the national debt. Such measures and policies impacted county council funding which in turn meant that the county of Treescape decided to focus its services on the most vulnerable. This resulted in the local authority youth service being disbanded, with all open access youth work, as well as the majority of infrastructure support and associated services stopping and buildings closing. A new targeted youth support service was thus created. If local communities in Treescape county wanted open access youth work, it was their responsibility to provide it. This thesis undertakes a comparative study exploring the response of individuals and local parish/town councils from four communities, who proactively secured forms of youth provision in their area. Through the conceptual lenses provided by Michel Foucault and Zygmunt Bauman, the findings reveal that individuals and local parish/town councils responded to the challenges by exercising forms of neoliberal governmentality and discipline in order to achieve local solutions. In so doing they have created a unique mix of neoliberal and business-based approaches with local values that privilege the importance of relationships. I call this the ‘loconomy’. Given the precariousness and insecurity felt by individuals and youth providers, I discovered the presence of a ‘situational dynamic’ where youth providers needed to consider how much to invest in a local community in order to strengthen their case to be a parish/town councils’ preferred provider, which meant keeping both the young people and funder contented. However, this was not easy as youth work had become financialised, with finance limiting what could be offered at a local level compared with what was previously available via the local authority youth service. This resulted in varied forms of youth work, all of which had experienced shrinkflation.

This thesis looked to explore both mothers' experiences of child protection social work intervention following an incident of domestic violence and/or abuse (DVA), and social workers (SWs) experiences of delivering this intervention. It sought to determine if oppressive approaches previously found (Douglas and Walsh, 2010) remain and, if yes, understand why they continue to be used. This was to identify positive approaches to improve practice. By using a feminist lens to explore the social constructions of each gender, map the patriarchal influences to social work practice since its creation and gather key research into a coherent whole, this thesis uncovers how patriarchy influences child protection social work, and how mothers are held to account to gendered expectations set through patriarchy. A Participatory Action Research methodology was used and both mothers who had involvement with child protection social work and child protection SWs who delivered the intervention were interviewed. Three data collection tools were created, validated and piloted for the research; 36 interviews were undertaken. There were three stages to data collection and all data was analysed thematically. Findings include that mothers perceive social work intervention to be threatening, coercive and controlling. Mothers felt blamed by SWs, held responsible for stopping the abuse and controlling their partners. SWs recognised that they held expectations for mothers and often this was to ensure the child's safety, without considering the impact on mothers. It was found that the re-victimisation of mothers occurs due to social work practice that is influenced by a combination of power, social constructions and the SW’s approach. Positive practice was identified and recommendations for practice are made. The original contributions to knowledge this thesis makes includes: • Including both mothers and SWs in the same research • The creation of data collection research tools specific to child protection social work practice • Mapping the patriarchal influences on social work to understand current day practice.

This thesis enquires into the application of concepts and practices associated with psychoanalysis (as a broad therapeutic tradition linked by a concern for what is unconscious) in qualitative social work research. It is specifically concerned with the theory and practice of psychoanalytically-informed research interviewing. The first half of thesis considers the application of free association and the use of therapeutic interpretation in interviews. It also provides a critical account of Hollway and Jefferson’s (2000, 2013) “free association narrative interview method” - a well-known approach to research interviewing and analysis (at least amongst scholars interested in the extrapolation of psychoanalytic principles to extra-clinical qualitative research) that is grounded in a framework combining aspects of psychoanalytic and discursive psychology. The second half of the thesis then relates findings from an empirical study informed by this method which sought to explore how children’s services professionals experience the suffering of parents in their work via 33 interviews with 15 participants. The reporting of this research allows for further consideration of how interview narratives can be understood from a psychoanalytically-informed perspective, and how participants experience being the subjects of this type of study. It also illustrates how insights from psychoanalytically based psycho-social theory can be used for enquiring into the ways in which parents figure in the minds of children’s services professionals and how their capacity to hold the suffering parent in mind relates to working conditions and practices, and individual and organisational psychodynamics. Overall, in addressing these different tasks, the thesis makes a contribution, firstly, in rectifying a lack of critical concern amongst social work researchers with the free association narrative interview method. Secondly, and more broadly, it develops and refines understanding about the relationship between psychoanalysis and qualitative research interviewing, the quasi-therapeutic qualities of research interview participation, and the nature of psycho-social understanding in social work research.

Grounded in Piagetian epistemology, a key aim of this thesis was to better understand the complex constructs of well- and ill-being. According to Deci and Ryan (2000) the quality of our well-being is fundamental to how much we consider ourselves to be functioning optimally. Yet little is known concerning how children and adolescents conceptualise well- and ill-being. To address this limitation, the overarching aim of this thesis was to develop an assessment tool for use with children and adolescents to meaningfully, validly and reliably measure youngsters' well- and ill-being via the concepts and words of young people themselves. In Chapter 2, an indicator of well-being (i.e., the subjective vitality scale) often employed with younger populations, was examined in terms of measurement invariance. Findings suggested differences between children and adolescents well-being scores warranted further investigation. In Chapters 3 and 4, a developmental approach was used to explore children's (7-11 years) and adolescents (12-18 years) understanding and experience of well- and ill-being. A developmental trajectory in well- and ill-being was revealed, which holds implications for valid and reliable assessment in research and practice contexts. Using the young people's descriptors of well- and ill-being derived an initial questionnaire was presented in Chapter 4. A set of studies presented in Chapter 5 details the development of two multidimensional measures of well- and ill-being (MMWIB-C), one for children and another version for adolescents (MMWIB-A). Evidence of validity and reliability of the new measure(s) outlined in Chapter 5 is promising, suggesting the MMWIB has the potential to validly record and report on the well- and ill-being of children and adolescents in future.

This thesis explores issues of social injustice impacting on a sample group of young people living in a Scottish community and critically examines their experiences on the periphery of the labour market. Existing research evidence has highlighted myriad issues impacting on young people as they struggle to make the transition to adulthood. Young people in the UK have been particularly impacted by the economic turbulence of recent years with stagnating wages, higher rates of unemployment compared to older age groups, an increase in precarious employment and a gradual erosion of welfare entitlement. Allied to this, unemployed youth continue to be disparaged in popular discourse, labelled amongst other things as feckless and idle. As a consequence, there is evidence that young people on the margins of society are disengaging from formal politics, feeling alienated from an arena that they also see as disconnected from their everyday lives. This thesis uses the framework of social justice as conceived by Nancy Fraser to critically analyse perceived injustices affecting the lives of young people. These issues manifest across all three spheres of injustice as identified by Fraser; the economic, the cultural and the political spheres of social life - what she calls the domains of redistribution, recognition and representation, respectively. The findings of my research study confirms that Fraser's framework not only allows us to bring together the multiple injustices impacting on these young people's lives, but helps to reveal the ways in which they overlap and interpenetrate, reinforcing marginalisation. Fraser's framework is also utilised as a lens through which to analyse and understand the context within which practitioners working with the young people are operating. As many writers in the area of youth work argue, it is an ethical requirement that the practice supports young people towards addressing any injustices impacting on their lives. This study finds that the ability of practitioners to respond to the issues of injustice in the lives of the young people is compromised by a performative landscape centred on meeting pre-ordained targets and outcomes.

This thesis is concerned with exploring why and how early childhood development becomes an object of policy. More specifically, it sets out to explore the couplings of knowledge and power and how these productive encounters materialize in discourses, practices and subjectivities that create the conditions for the governing of children and parents. A Foucauldian theoretical framework informed by postcolonial ideas is drawn on to question dominant understandings about young children, their development and the related production of policy knowledge. Based on a documentary analysis of policy texts of two multilateral organizations, it argues that specific evidence and research are used to construct early childhood development as foundational, malleable and profitable, and to prescribe a particular version of the 'normal' child and the 'good' parent. At the same time, it describes how data and statistics are strategically deployed to demonstrate the existence of a 'problem', which works to position less privileged children and their families as 'delayed', 'unable', and in 'need'. An investment narrative is identified as providing an economic rationale for government intervention in early childhood development that reinforces an understanding of children as potential human capital. Drawing on Ball's methodological and analytical 'toolbox', the thesis traces how global narratives are reproduced, interpreted and refused at a particular national setting, while at the same time offering an insider's perspective of how policies are shaped, produced, enacted, and, importantly, with what effects. A critical auto-ethnography is used to reconstruct and examine the different contexts of influence, policy text production, practice and outcomes. The thesis examines these contexts in a particular site of policy experience: the national programme 'Cuna Mas' in Peru. It considers the effects of globalisation and the role of context and agency in forming, framing and limiting the production and enactment of state national policies, arguing that despite being informed by the globalised policy discourses, there is evidence of active adaptation and recontextualisation by local staff.

This thesis investigates the views of English social workers and child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) clinicians about how social workers use the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) with looked after children. Focus groups and semi structured interviews (conducted 2011 - 2013) examined social workers' (n = 58, from nine local authorities) understandings of the mental health needs of looked after children and their use of the SDQ in assessing this, as well as how CAMHS clinicians (n = 24, from 11 Health Trusts) viewed the role of social workers in appropriately assessing mental health problems. Normalisation Process Theory was used to appraise how the SDQ had been routinely operationalised in everyday social work practice. A case study of one local authority explored the working practices of looked after children's social workers and specialist CAMHS clinicians working in a co-located (high integration) service which had achieved consistently high annual SDQ returns over a number of years. The study found most social workers were not aware of the SDQ scores of the children or young people they were allocated and did not know how to interpret it in terms of looked after children's mental health. Routinely collected SDQ data on looked after children who had been in care for a year or longer was not utilised by most of the social workers or the local authorities which collected it. Specialist CAMHS used the SDQ alongside social workers in only two local authorities. Level of integration (based on degree of co-location of social workers and CAMHS) did not appear to be associated with social workers' SDQ use. Detailed examination of one local authority showed that although it contained a highly integrated service and was the best in the country at getting completed SDQ forms returned from foster carers, having a robust process for data collection was not enough to ensure the SDQ was integrated within social work practice in the organisation. Given challenges to local authority budgets and services, any recommendations to improve current practice must be mindful of resource implications. Better utilisation could therefore be made of existing local authority processes and resources to embed the SDQ into routine practice. A multi-agency approach remains critical to establish the routinised usage of the SDQ. This has the potential to benefit all agencies and most importantly, looked after children.

This thesis seeks to uncover how teachers engage with multi-agency working within the context of the Every Child Matters agenda (DfES, 2003) and how this impacts on their sense of identity. To do this it provides an account of a qualitative study of ten teachers at a mainstream secondary school. The study uses data from interviews and observations of multi-agency work, which were analysed using a framework drawing on identity and sensemaking. My focus is on teachers' subjective experience of multi-agency work as they attempt to make sense of policy requirements and implement change whilst subjected to a range of conflicting policy drivers which they have to negotiate in order to decide where best to employ their attention. To achieve these aims, I use a Sensemaking theoretical paradigm in order to facilitate analytical focus on links with prior experiences and my respondents' understanding of who they feel they are as teachers - rather than in relation to an a-priori scheme. Through drawing on semi-structured interviews with these teachers, this study finds that despite multi-agency working becoming a policy directive, these teachers showed limited engagement with multi-agency principles or ways of working. This study finds dissonance from increasing pressures to ensure students perform academically, and perceptions that engagement with multi-agency teams does not form part of teachers' role as educationists. The resulting difficulties faced by teachers when making sense of multi-agency work creates barriers in the negotiation of teachers' understanding of their role, thus potentially limiting future engagement with such work. At a time when teachers are expected to enact additional safeguarding roles, the ability to collaborate with multiple professionals remains critical. Therefore, this study has relevance for policy makers and educationists in considering how multi-agency policies are enacted in schools today.

The term 'well-being' is increasingly used in Early Childhood Education & Care (hereafter ECEC) policy contexts as a desirable outcome for children. In large part, this outcome appears to be predicated on children achieving stage specific educational goals and being 'ready for school'. However, in spite of its ubiquitous use, child well-being remains under-theorised, thereby contributing to implicit understandings within policy arenas. Such understandings may not be reflected by the recipients of, or those charged with implementing, this policy. This study therefore set out to explore: first, how ECEC policy currently theorises child well-being; second, how parents, early years educators and young children themselves conceptualise child (their) well-being; and third, the implications of these understandings for the policies and practices of working optimally together in the interests of children in low-income areas. To do so, a theoretical framework of child well-being was developed as the study's framing and analytical tool. This framework was developed by exploring current well-being theories and considering how they are influenced by, and contribute to, prevailing social constructions of young children. The concepts privileged by each of the theories were used to critique ECEC policy and its implications for young children's well-being. These concepts were, in turn, applied to perspectives of the three under-represented groups in ECEC policy formation. These views were generated in a small-scale qualitative study (conducted between July 2016 - June 2017) which involved 18 children aged two - four years and seven each of parents and early years educators in a low-income area in England. Semi-structured interviews and the Mosaic Approach were used to generate data with adults and children respectively. The findings suggest that ECEC policy is narrowly conceived. Its measurement practices and curriculum goals, in particular, may undermine, while at the same time characterising itself as espousing, practice supportive of young children's well-being. The three respondent groups had broader conceptualisations of child well-being. They understood well-being to be inter-dependent with that of others. In this sense well-being was seen to be not only under-theorised, but under-socialised and de-historicised. Consequently, an integrative approach to well-being is proposed which neither privileges nor abstracts children from their social and material contexts. A reconceptualisation of childhood away from prevailing deficit social constructions, a recalibration of ECEC policy and practice to be more responsive to children's wider contexts, and recognition of the broader social and material factors influencing m/others and their shared environments would support all their well-beings. The thesis contributes to knowledge by developing a theoretical framework, which provides a more holistic conceptualisation of young children's well-being in ECEC generally and for those in low-income areas in particular. It is also the first study, to my knowledge, to report the subjective well-being of children under the age of five years.

The exploitation of natural resources has become an essential financial lifeline for non-state armed groups in current conflicts. In Colombia, paramilitary forces, left-wing guerrilla groups and criminal organisations have increasingly combined illegal activities around drug trafficking with extortion and exploitation of mineral resources. In the unlicensed extraction of gold, children perform multiple forms of labour, including armed and unarmed roles that benefit armed organisations. However, academic attention and institutional assistance have been mainly directed to child combatants. The widespread stereotyping of children used to participate in armed conflict as manipulated armed fighters oversimplifies the complex realities of young people during natural resource conflicts and overlooks other equally vulnerable children. This ethnographic study focused on three mining-and-conflict-affected areas in Choco, from October 2016 to June 2017, seeking to understand the lived experiences of working children and their possibilities for action and survival. It combined participatory observation, interviews and a collection of methods based on storytelling and imagination to better engage children in the research process. Besides giving particular value to local perceptions and children's voices, this methodology offers an original approach to conduct research with young people in conflictive settings. In order to understand the complex nature of childhood experiences in the research areas, I connect the literatures on the sociology of childhood, anthropology of conflict, and humanitarianism as guiding analytical frameworks. This enabled me to uncover multiple childhood experiences, as well as identify shortcomings in theoretical and practical responses. This thesis found that, in contrast to mainstream conceptualisations of child labour in extractive economies, young people in the research areas do not perform a set of fixed, observable roles. Rather, they adapt their networks of interaction, identities and meanings ascribed to childhood in their quest for survival. The complexity of their experience navigating combined forms of labour problematizes existing categorisations, the division between armed and unarmed roles, and the labels use to acknowledge their experiences. In addition to methodological strategies, this thesis makes three significant contributions to theoretical debates around childhood, child labour, and humanitarianism. Firstly, I propose a networked interpretation of child labour that embraces the fluidity and 'messiness' of natural resource conflicts. Secondly, I expand the conceptualisations of children's agency and social age by including the relationships of working children with illegal actors. Finally, I challenge the way vulnerability is currently used to categorise disadvantaged children within the humanitarian architecture. I demonstrate that, despite existing policies and the moral urgency to protect all children at risk, in practice intervention agencies give greater attention to child combatants, neglecting others just as vulnerable in mining-and-conflict-affected areas.

Austerity cuts in the UK beginning in 2009 and the continued targeting of young people's services on young people who are 'troublesome' is troubling many practitioners who work with young people. Increasingly they are employed in multidisciplinary teams working with whole families. My research explores the work of two case study organisations who have developed work with young people within their families through outdoor and residential opportunities and key working. These are organic programmes which take an asset-based approach to develop ways of working with young people within their families. Using a collaborative, multi-modal approach, the research explores the narratives of practitioners who work on these programmes and draws on the stories of participating young people and their families to act as mirrors in a critically reflective process. Their individual narratives are bound together in a shared experience of living, playing and learning together, sometimes in the outdoors, sometimes in residential settings, sometimes at home. A collaborative action research process contributed to the on-going development of that practice. My research explores the different articulations of work with young people within their families and supports the emergence of new theory from practice. My own macro-analysis is informed by a critical feminist perspective and examines the emerging practice-theories within the political and cultural context of families identified as being 'troubled'. The case studies demonstrate the contribution that outdoor learning, experiential learning and informal learning can offer to the multidisciplinary practice of work with families. The tradition of social education and new possibilities of social pedagogy provide further theoretical perspectives from which to critically reflect on practice and its social and political context. I conclude that work with young people within their families is more a context for work with young people than a discipline in its own right; it does not represent a single pedagogical perspective. These approaches may combine with residential programmes to create a different space in which to explore family relationships. I do however offer a model of critical practice to support practitioners to continue to trouble and question their practice with a commitment to the voice and empowerment of young people respecting the diversity of their experiences and their visions of family relationships. In these troubling times work with young people within their families, needs to come in from the cold and confidently articulate its contribution to this new context of professional practice.

Mentoring is commonplace in various settings and contexts yet its role in improving young people's health, educational outcomes and employability is not well understood. Three separate studies were undertaken to examine the long-term outcomes of mentoring and to investigate formal mentoring programmes in the United Kingdom (UK). To assess long-term outcomes of mentoring, I conducted secondary analysis on 10,140 participants of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health study. Having a natural mentor in adolescence was positively associated with having obtained a college degree (OR=1.34 [95%CI 1.06, 1.70], p=0.016) and self-rated health at age 24-34 (OR=1.25 [1.00, 1.56], p=0.048). No associations were found between mentoring and being employed (OR=1.23 [0.96, 1.57], p=0.10) or having depression in early adulthood (OR=0.95 [0.80, 1.12], p=0.52). A qualitative interview study with programme managers (23) and experts (5) was conducted to explore formal mentoring programmes in the UK. Mentoring was conceptualised differently by participants and a typology was created differentiating twelve mentoring programme models. The development, delivery and maintenance of programmes was shaped by contextual influences at the individual-, interpersonal-, organisational-, community-, policy-, and societal-level. A multiple descriptive case study was undertaken to examine the experiences of 11 young people who had a formal mentor, including the views of their parents and mentors. These were contrasted with the experiences of 10 young people without a mentor. Young people with a mentor reported substantial positive changes on health and educational outcomes which were not experienced by those without a mentor. However, the potential for harm was also indicated. Mentoring can play a role in improving young people's short- and long-term health and educational outcomes, yet potential harms should be considered. Uncertainty remains regarding employability outcomes. A full-scale randomised controlled trial can provide evidence about the effectiveness of formal mentoring programmes for these outcomes.

This thesis explores how English child protection proceedings embed meaningful participation. The collection and interpretation of wishes and feelings during statutory social work practice (s.53 Children Act 2004) should give insight into the child's lived experience, as well as highlighting their opinion of the impact of social work on their lives. However, with no statutory, participatory social work model currently in place, children are missing opportunities to comment on decisions made for them, by adults, at all stages of the child protection process. Phase One comprised of semi-structured qualitative interviews and focus groups with parents, social workers and participation workers from one local authority. The findings revealed innovative social work practice taking place, along with examples of how practitioners and parents balance protection with participation. However, all research participants identified gaps in both service provision and their personal understanding of (or commitment to) participation. Emerging themes such as the imbalance of power, knowledge and application of social work legislation, relationship building, advocacy, the presence of the child in decision-making forums and the challenges / appropriateness of sharing information with children led to the development of a new model for participation in child protection proceedings. Creative, semi-structured interviews with children aged 8-12 years, who were the subject of a child protection plan and living at home with their parents, were the focus of Phase Two. Whilst most of the participating children shared how much they appreciated their social worker, all indicated a breakdown in their ability to participate, particularly regarding the amount and type of information shared between the practitioner, the parent and the child. The child's experience of child protection proceedings, and their understanding of their own child protection plan, further tested and validated the usefulness of the newly designed participatory model. Using the work of Bourdieu, this thesis reflects on the field of child protection; the challenge of sharing power in a social space where service user presence is involuntary. What becomes clear is that, despite growing amounts of social work research and literature, there remains little guidance for social workers (particularly newly qualified social workers) to routinely, inclusively and knowledgably embed participation into their daily social work practice. This thesis therefore aims to provide practical responses to service user and practitioner dilemmas, and bridge the gap between research and practice.

In the UK, children and young people at risk of significant harm may be placed on a care order. Despite changes to the legislative landscape, research has found that once they reach adulthood, outcomes for care leavers are poor. Changes to the statutory role of educational psychologists, promoting work with those up to age 25, potentially offer greater scope for supporting this vulnerable group. A systematic literature review (SLR) sought to provide insight into care leavers' priorities on entering adulthood. Studies published between 2002-2016 were identified from four databases. Eight studies met inclusion criteria, and were analysed using a quality framework. Seven were included in the final review. The SLR identified facilitators and barriers around preparing for adulthood for care leavers. An interdependence transition model emerged as a framework for enhancing care leaver transitions. Increased emphasis on involving care leavers in transition processes has marked an important change in recent years. In response to this participation agenda, ten care leavers aged 16-19 living in the North West and South West of England were interviewed about their priorities in preparing for adulthood. Thematic analysis was used to explore the extent to which care leavers were able to exert choice and control around these priority areas, using a Self-Determination Theory (SDT) framework. SDT links the individual's ability to steer personal outcomes to the human need for competence, relatedness and autonomy. Findings indicated that the care leavers often did not feel a sense of relatedness to those supporting their decision-making and were often asked to assume high levels of autonomy in future life planning. Implications for educational psychologists acting in the role of corporate parent are explored. Having explored evidence-based practice and practice-based evidence, the final paper discusses dissemination of evidence to professional practice. A strategy for disseminating findings to corporate parents is proposed.

The rights of children and young people to express their views in matters that affect them when they are subject to statutory child protection interventions are enshrined in global and domestic legal frameworks. However, the most recent review of the English child protection system commented on a number of system failures that has resulted in a loss of focus on the child or young person in child protection assessment and decision making practices (Munro,2011b). The aim of this thesis, to explore the participation of children and young people in their child protection conference; originated from recommendations from Munro's review, which called for more child-centred approaches in child protection practice. The thesis is a qualitative, mixed methods case study, and draws on phenomenological and post-structural methodologies to explore the nature of children and young people's participation in person, as well as through the representation of others in Moor Town, a local authority in the north of England. The thesis is influenced by Foucault's concept of genealogy , and locates the evolution of participation in a microcosm of child protection practice at fixed points in child welfare law, policy and practice. The study found that children and young people did not routinely attend child protection conferences in person. Young people who did attend did so as an exercise of their rights, and identified the importance of preparation for participating in ways that were meaningful for them. Attendance had a cathartic effect, and contributed to the development of life skills. However, the findings suggest that social workers exercised power and autonomy to exclude children and young people on the grounds of age and maturity, and because they perceived the emotional impact of being physically present in a confrontational adult environment not to be in the best interests of the child or young person. There was limited evidence to suggest that more strength based approaches for assessing and responding to risk had promoted participatory rights in social work practice. When children and young people did not attend in person, their views, wishes and feelings were generally mediated, and subjected to professional filtering and interpretation, and there was an over - reliance on the use of direct work tools associated with strength based approaches. The findings from this study contribute to an existing knowledge base which suggests that individual, agency and societal assumptions over childhood serve to uphold protection rights over participatory rights in child protection assessment and decision making forums. The thesis draws on recommendations made by young people to propose a number qualifying and post qualifying practice recommendations for developing more child -directed child protection conference environments.

The practice of placing children without parental care in large institutions has a long history as a global phenomenon. Since the 1950s a continuous stream of research has highlighted the harmful effects of institutional life on children's development. Babies, young children, and children with impairments are recognised as being particularly vulnerable. Whilst other European countries have developed alternative care based around models of caregiving within 'the family', Bulgaria and other Central Eastern European countries have been slow to develop de-institutionalisation. This thesis explores the role of local grandmothers (Babas) who are paid a small remuneration to provide one to one care for disabled children in a large institution in Bulgaria. Taking an ecological approach to children's development, the study situates the child's experience within the wider socio-political context which highlights how practices have been informed by dominant political and historical ideologies. The research applies a qualitative methodology, informed by the critical research traditions of Feminism and Disability Studies. Data was collected using semi structured interviews from Babas, Bulgarian professionals and British volunteers who have worked together in the institution and non-governmental organisations (NGO). In addition, documentation from one NGO was analysed. Key findings show that the Babas offer an alternative caregiving experience for these children. The daily intimate encounters between the Babas and children transform the child's immediate crucible of development. They move from an isolated and stagnant space of organisational caregiving practices at odds with their needs and human rights, to an active space of intimate and responsive caregiving practices which promote development, resilience and agency. Overall the Baba offers the psychological investment in the child that is absent in the institution and offers support at a key transitional point. In conclusion, the findings of this project are not presented as a definitive solution to the complex problem of the institutionalisation of children. However, it does propose that the Baba programme is a significant part of the transformative process for wider improvements in the provision of alternative care for these children. This supports the development of de-institutionalisation policies and strategies within Bulgaria and stresses the significance of developing and embedding interventions in meaningful ways within local communities and cultures.

Most young people today can enjoy an extended stay under parental care unlike young adults who age out of residential, foster care or other alternative care systems ("care leavers"). Care leavers are expected to look after themselves in matters such as securing employment, and housing without necessarily being in possession of a durable supportive social network system. Increasingly, many significant worldwide studies concerning care leavers show the importance of relationship-based practice, and the pivotal role of networking to enhance interpersonal skills and emotional maturity. These ingredients are viewed to contribute to more positive outcomes at adulthood. However, relatively few studies have solely focused on the utilization of social capital and social networks to negotiate independent living. It is this gap that the present study addresses. The dearth of knowledge of the care leavers' own safety net and how they negotiate independent living has driven this research. Qualitative in approach, this empirical research used interviews and vignettes on a sample composed of 58 participants (31 care leavers from Romania and 17 from England ranging from 17 to 29 years of age together with five professionals from each country). Aimed at understanding strategies used to negotiate independent living through the lenses of social capital and social networks, this empirical study subsequently provides key indicators to improve leaving care policy and practice. According to young people's and professionals' testimonies, elements of social capital such as trust, encouragement, reciprocity, and access to information contributed to boosting levels of confidence that further lead to optimization of resources such as employment prospects. A close relationship between social networks/social capital and the participants' outcomes, including individual (enhanced resilience, positive identity formation) and attained socio-economic status has been identified here. This comparative study between Romania and England, chosen for their different welfare systems and wider social contexts, illustrates that social capital and social networks have acted as a main channel to socio-professional integration among the young adults. The findings suggest the essence of having established a strong foundation of support prior to leaving care. Nevertheless, as social capital is in its infancy in this domain, more empirical evidence is necessary to deepen an understanding of the concept's mitigating role in youth well-being and outcomes. This includes whether established capital prior to leaving care can contribute to positive experiences specifically during the early periods of transition. Another aspect to explore is whether fellow colleagues could represent an effective strategy in service provision during the preparatory stages to independence.

This thesis presents a Realist Evaluation of the Brook Traffic Light Tool (TLT) which supports professionals in reducing harmful sexual behaviours (HSB) in children and young people (CYP). This is important as the numbers of HSB in CYP are rising, and no national strategy exists in the UK. The conceptual element consisted of developing a hybrid methodological approach combining: Realist Evaluation; The Kirkpatrick Model; evidence based policy, policy transfer and policy success perspectives. The empirical element involved evaluating the implementation of the TLT across Cornwall, with data collected in a three phase mixed method approach: a questionnaire with 436 responses; 60 detailed questionnaires and 13 interviews. The context, mechanisms and outcomes that emerged were complex. Conceptually, questions were raised about empirical research that underpins the TLT, with UK transfer and policy success criteria presenting a mixed picture of success. In Cornwall the TLT met the majority of its outcomes. Direct impact upon the behaviour of CYP was difficult to ascertain and categorisation anomalies were found when behaviours were not explicitly outlined in the TLT. The study found that a range of professionals were encountering both harmful and healthy sexual behaviours, yet comparison to national figures proved problematic as no baseline exists.

The right to participate and express a view is an intrinsic right afforded to all human beings, regardless of age (Lundy, 2007). Explicitly, Articles 12, 13, 14 and 15 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) grant participatory rights to children and young people in decision-making. One of the forms of participation academics and practitioners have studied over the past decades, the engagement of children and young people in participatory processes, is moving away from the understanding of children as passive recipients of research to active participants. However, literature has paid scant attention to research led directly by children and young people (Thomas, 2015). Child-led research is understood, as starting definition from literature, as an approach in which children and young people are involved in all stages - from planning, fieldwork and analysis to dissemination. The aim of this research is to critically explore how the process and outcomes of children and young people's participation in their own child-led research contributes, positively or negatively, to decision-making processes in the context of international development programmes. The research questions are: Question 1: What are children and young people's motivations for, expectations of and experiences with engaging in their own child-led research as a way to influence decision-making? Question 2: What are the processes of child-led research that positively or negatively influence decision-making? Question 3: In what ways does child-led research influence decision-making? (And why and how do they do so?) This research project used a case study approach to examine two cases where children and young people claimed they conducted child-led research. The first, Bekaa and Irbid, investigated the research conducted by a group of children and young people on issues relevant to their situations as refugees in the host countries of Lebanon and Jordan. The second, Dhaka, reviewed child-led research focused on the lack of birth certificates issued for Bangladeshi children and the possible effects of not having this legal registration. A group of children and young people who are members of a Children's Parliament in Dhaka led this project. The research participants for this project are defined as (1) the children and young people, aged 12 to 18 (when I interviewed them), who are associated with World Vision programmes and engaged in the child-led research projects within their constituencies in the Irbid and Bekaa and Dhaka case studies and (2) the adult professionals who acted as facilitators of child-led research projects and those who worked in the design of these projects or dissemination of their findings. These participants were those who were best suited to provide the information needed as they were fully involved in the child-led research projects and had in-depth knowledge to contribute answers to the research questions. This project adopted several methods for data collection, including focus groups, semi-structured interviews, observations and documentary review. The study followed ethical research guidelines to ensure the safety, rights, dignity and well-being of both the children and young people and adult participants (Morrow, 2009). The research took into account the special considerations required to gain informed consent, ensure confidentiality and anonymity, acknowledge the cultures of the research sites, and refrain from presenting information that may potentially harm participants (Marshall and Rossman, 2006). The findings of the study show that the child-led research approach is considered an adequate participatory approach that creates spaces for children and young people to engage in their own research and influence change based on their findings. Thus, this approach enabled participants to gather together and pursue collectively a research project in which they were able to explore issues about their lives using research methodologies that were appropriate to their experiences, abilities and expertise. This conversion, however, highlights a variety of tensions around the understanding and legitimacy of child-led research. Findings from this study supports the view that child-led research generates empirically grounded knowledge, which produced through data collection and personal experiences of the young researches and its analysis as a whole. Findings also reveal that the young researchers' motivations and expectations were to make an impact on their own lives, as well as the lives of their peers and change a situation that they perceived as unfair. Findings show that the adult facilitators played an important role in facilitating the young researchers but not managing them. However, this study evidenced some tensions between participation and protection rights. The study found manifestations of power amongst the children and young people during the child-led research projects, which were based on age, gender, religion, language and ethnicity. This confirms children and young people can replicate power relations within their participatory projects, which are deeply embedded in their traditions and cultures. Findings show that child-led research has different levels of impact; on decision-making and in the individual lives of the young researchers. This is connected to the contexts where children and young people conducted their research, which was conducive in one case study and more challenging in the other case. Overall, the findings of this study contribute to the body of literature that challenges the dominant conceptualisation that children and young people are unable to conduct their own research. Instead, the findings of this research project contribute to the study of children and young people's participation by providing different perspectives on the debate around the children and young people's abilities and motivations to engage in their own child-led research projects. The findings contribute to knowledge about the nature of child-led research as an approach that supports children and young people in their struggle to participate in society. These findings contribute to the substantial gap of understanding about what is knowledge and expertise by exploring the ways in which children and young people conduct their own research and create knowledge with the aim of making a change in society. Specifically, the findings provide empirical evidence of the impact that their work has had on policy and practice and their personal lives.

Inter-agency working has been promoted as a way forward to improve public services, including children's services. However, the terminology is problematic because it often overlaps with other terminologies, such as partnership or collaboration. As a consequence, when describing working arrangements between people and organisations, a 'terminological quagmire' results (Leathard, 1994, p5), with 'definitional chaos' (Ling, 2000, p83). This definitional chaos is replicated in the on-going challenges found by research, on inter-agency working. While much literature has focussed on these challenges and solutions, little attention has been given to the processes that make up inter-agency working. My research explored inter-agency working processes at the frontline of children's services in Scotland. It examined formal mechanisms of working together, such as meetings and referral forms, which organised professionals' work and their relationships with one another. I used institutional ethnography to investigate inter-agency working processes. The research was conducted in one local authority in Scotland over a period of eight months and within the framework of Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC), which is the country's national policy approach for children. One component of GIRFEC is the Named Person. It is a provision that would provide every child in Scotland a professional (for most children the professional is going to be their health visitor or head teacher) to help safeguard their wellbeing by means of offering advice, support and referral to other services. This service will make teachers at promoted posts responsible for coordinating support for their pupils and will change mechanisms of inter-agency working. The tenets of institutional ethnography allowed me to observe and trace the ways in which professionals worked together. The research found that when professionals worked together, they shared information and that sharing of information was complicated by the burgeoning use of technology. The working processes involved revealed the power relations between people and between people and organisations: specifically, between teachers and the Children and Families team members of the council, as the latter was responsible for maintaining the formal inter-agency working mechanisms of GIRFEC. The thesis highlights that inter-agency meetings, as formalised ways of working together, can boost professionals' confidence as they wrestle with uncertainty about their actions as professionals and how best to address children and young people's needs. This thesis also shows how policy changes changed the ways in which professionals work together. The Named Person provision of GIRFEC has ignited public debates in Scotland. This thesis is contributing to the debates by providing evidence on how this new role has changed the relationships between the teachers and other professionals. This is pertinent as the Scottish Government is currently redesigning the Named Person policy.

This inter-disciplinary project studies the child substitution motif - that is, in my own terms, the idea that a human child is/has been removed and another being, the changeling, substituted in its place - as it manifests in texts and images during the medieval period. Through detailed comparison of a wide variety of sources from across Europe, I address key questions about the significance of the motif. In particular, I engage with the figure of the changeling as a cultural construct, an element of the medieval imaginative landscape that is invested with meaning through its cultural context and that can therefore be used as a lens through which to examine and reveal societal tensions; particularly regarding infants and children: their health, their care, and their position within the familial unit. Chapter One provides an overview of the etymology and semantics of words that appear to have been used in north-west Europe during the Middle Ages to denote a changeling. Chapters Two through to Four work as a group to investigate how the examination of medieval changeling sources can contribute to our understanding of the medieval discourse surrounding the health and care of infants and children. Chapter Five discusses how the child substitution motif could function as a means to articulate other anxieties, such as those stemming from familial, theological, or socio-political tension.

Identity is seen by several academic disciplines as a concept critical to adolescent development. A singular, stable identity is often considered the idealised outcome of the bio-psycho-social development process. However, performing multiple distinct identities tailored for diverse contexts can be argued to be adaptive and productive for young people in difficult circumstances, such as those who are economically or socially marginal. This thesis explores if, how, and why street-associated youth in Yogyakarta, Indonesia perform distinct identities in diverse social and spatial contexts. The findings from a year-long ethnographic study form a basis for understanding better how youth perceive and enact their agency towards crafting identities as workers, as members of communities, as peers, as occupants of public space, as citizens, and on social media, within the context of rapidly changing urban landscape.

This thesis seeks to examine qualitatively key influencing factors on the outcomes and experiences of parent-infant intervention. The participant group were selected based on their attachment trauma history and their involvement with children's services. The intervention they received consisted of either a parent-infant foster placement, a residential assessment unit and/or parent-infant psychotherapy. Participants were interviewed on three separate occasions, once at the start of their placement, once during their placement and then after their placement had ended, when the outcome of their assessment was decided. In some cases, this outcome consisted of returning back into the community with their babies and for others, who had been unsuccessful in their assessments, the court granted social services removal of their baby. The interviews were analysed thematically with the aim of exploring whether key patterns and themes emerged based on the outcomes of their assessment. In terms of the participants who were successful, the key themes that emerged from their interviews included four 'change facilitators': 'Acceptance', 'Determination', 'Mentalization' and 'Connection with past trauma'. For the group whose babies were removed from their care, the key themes comprised three 'change inhibitors': 'Denial', 'Low Mentalization' and 'Disconnect with past trauma'. The 'change facilitators and inhibitors' could constitute a basis for practitioners to gauge progress in respect of all forms of help and support, not just psychosocial, in ways that do not rely solely on the behaviours of the parent and/or their infant, nor simply on the veridical account of the adult. The findings also highlight the benefit of using an attachment and trauma lens when working with parents, particularly if they have a history of attachment based trauma. In addition, the need for access to therapeutic resources for families when there are child protection concerns is also discussed.

This thesis investigated why some youth bystanders are more willing than others to report their observations of peer violence to authorities. Resilience theory underpinned the research to enable an exploration of the strengths/resources in normative development that may support youths’ reporting decisions. Using a mixed-methods approach (i.e. vignette experiment, survey, and standardised tool), both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered from 364 youth aged 11 to 18 years old. The analyses of this thesis tackled a specific subset of the data to answer three overarching questions: (1) Is there a discernible pattern to youths’ willingness to report peer violence? (2) What factors predict youth bystanders’ decisions to (not) report peer violence? And (3) How do ‘reporters’ differ from ‘non-reporters’? The results indicated that most youth were not willing to report peer violence to authorities, and this was largely contingent on their perceptions of the incident’s severity. Willingness to report did not differ significantly by gender, age and ethnicity. Of the six proxy measures of resilience examined, social competence predicted reporting: more prosocial attitudes were associated with higher levels of reporting. Moral cognitions and emotions did not differentiate reporters from non-reporters; therefore, non-reporters do have the capacity to recognise the gravity of a situation and feel sympathy toward victims of violence. A thematic analysis of the textual data suggests that social distance may account for this group’s lack of reporting. Based on the findings of this study, a model of youth bystander reporting of peer violence is proposed which purports that when youth are exposed to the risk of peer violence, the outcome of reporting is moderated by individual and social protective factors. In practice, reinforcing positive social behaviour and decreasing social distance amongst youth, and also between students and authorities, may yield a change in youths’ reporting potentials.

Recent studies have contributed to understanding of the mechanisms behind the association between childhood circumstances and later life. It has been hypothesized that experiences in childhood operate through influencing trajectories of life events and functional changes in health-related behaviours that can mediate the effects of childhood socioeconomic circumstances (SECs) on later health. Using data from the 1958 British birth cohort, we propose a multilevel structural equation modelling (SEM) approach to investigate the mediating effects of partnership stability, an example of life events in adulthood. Childhood circumstances are abstract concepts with multiple dimensions, each measured by a number of indicators over four childhood waves (at ages 0, 7, 11 and 16). Latent class models are fitted to each set of these indicators and the derived categorical latent variables characterise the patterns of change in four dimensions of childhood SECs. To relate these latent variables to a distal outcome, we first extend the 3-step maximum likelihood (ML) method to handle multiple, associated categorical latent variables and investigate sensitivity of the proposed estimation approach to departures from model assumptions. We then extend the 3-step ML approach to estimate models with multiple outcomes of mixed types and at different levels in a hierarchical data structure. The final multilevel SEM is comprised of latent class models and a joint regression model that relates these categorical latent variables to partnership transitions in adulthood and midlife health, while allowing for informative dropout. Most likely class memberships are treated as imperfect measurements of the latent classes. Life events (e.g. partnership transitions), distal outcomes (e.g. midlife health) and dropout indicators are viewed as items of one or more individual-level latent variables. To account for endogeneity and indirect associations, the effects of childhood SECs on partnership transitions for ages 16-50 and distal health at age 50 are jointly modelled by allowing for a residual association across equations due to shared but differential influences of time-invariant unobservables on each response. Finally, sensitivity analyses are performed to investigate the extent to which the specifications of the dropout model influence the estimated effects of childhood SECs on midlife health.

Following the Munro Review of Child Protection in England in 2011, the appointment of a Principal Child and Family Social Worker was recommended to provide practice leadership across child protection social work with children and families. Since this time, the experience of local authorities has varied greatly in the interpretation and implementation of the role. Using a multi-method qualitative approach, this study considered the views and perspectives of Senior Managers in the conception and implementation, and the experience of PCFSWs in undertaking the role, to interrogate the following research questions: - How has the role of PCFSW been implemented? - What does the implementation tell about management, leadership and professional status? - What does the implementation reveal about boundary spanning, organisational change, and complexity? - What are the implications for future policy development? The wider context of continuing changes in legislation, policy, regulation, and DfE lead reform was considered. Building on the systems approach advocated by Munro, this research was conceptualised with reference to boundary spanning and complexity theory. The findings suggest that current policy and practice in child protection social work has evolved in a closed system, where compliance and the features of managerialism prevail. In contrast, frontline practitioners more readily operate in a complex system. Tensions between the two perspectives continue such that the aspirations for reform instigated by Munro and articulated by the participants in this study have not been fully achieved. Such aspirations may not be achievable when one part of the wider system needs to be open and adaptive, while the authority in the system seeks to be controllable, and hence closed. These tensions are reflected in current DfE policy initiatives. Given this, it is unlikely that one role, the PCFSW, can singularly effect such change within the organisation or the wider system.

Individuals who have been in care are often thought of as a homogenous group who, because of past and ongoing contextual adversities, have outcomes reflecting hardship in various do mains. Aggregated outcomes may conceal the presence of individuals within this group who develop life projects and are able to put plans into action. Some manage to succeed educationally and take up places on university course. This research seeks to explore the reflexivity, internal conversations and social networks of young people who had been in care but had managed to become students at university. Five young people were interviewed using Archer’s (2003, 2007) semi-structured internal conversation inter view and then using Hartman’s (1978) ecogram to graphically represent their social network. Data was analysed using Robinson and Smith’s (2010) composite analysis, which incorporates elements of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (2015) and the Inter active Model (Miles and Huberman (1995)). The young people’s accounts showed that they were proudly independent, demonstrating considerable personal agency, but were well connected and able to access emotional and practical support in their social networks. They felt different to others and managed their difficult histories in a variety of ways. The results are considered in relationship to Archer’s theory and theories of resilience.

With a widening policy framework, a broad range of funding streams and diversity of practice, youth work is a disparate profession with an ill-defined and evolving purpose. This is not only evident from the literature but also from the array of activities and practices presenting themselves as youth work. While there are definitions relating to purpose, more substantive texts exist to describe the processes and defining characteristics of youth work with greater depth. Examining these purposeful and intentional processes elucidates deeper insights in defining the purpose of youth work. Upon a review and examination of the literature, four specific processes predominated, namely, relationship building, conversation and dialogue, participation and experiential learning. The exploration of these four processes, the underpinning theory and their relationship with the purpose of youth work form the basis of this inquiry. The study examines how youth workers perceive these processes, and their relation to its primary purpose. The research follows a qualitative interpretivist approach to explore core characteristics of youth work involving two phases, focus groups and semi-structured interviews with qualified youth workers from Northern Ireland. These research methods assist in understanding the epistemological perspectives of youth workers as it relates to key processes and the purpose of youth work. Thirty-two youth work practitioners participated in the study. Whilst numerous findings are presented to add to the body of knowledge there are four significant messages from the study. These pertain to youth work's clarity of purpose and identity, the questioning of normative youth work concepts and ideas and the weakness of theoretical linkages to practice. Fourthly, the place of theory as it relates to the study is explored. This offers Jürgen Habermas' perspective of learning as a potential unifying theory and the presentation of a new model for understanding the interrelationship between the youth work processes.

This qualitative research study into professional youth work identities and practices offers an insider perspective on the youth work community of practice. The research inquiry adopts a socially constructivist theoretical framework and was contextualised by the political and socio-economic climate in the north-west of England in 2013. Seventeen professionally-qualified youth workers took part in focus groups and interviews that were audio-recorded and transcribed, producing data for both thematic and discursive analyses. The data seeks to shed light on personal, professional and political dimensions of youth work identities; the professional knowledge used by youth workers, evidence of the value of youth work and the discursive construction of youth work accounts. Noticeably, the youth workers’ descriptions and explanations of their practice portrayed the formative influence of biography and learning in shaping their journey into youth work. They expressed commitment to reflective practice and had passion for youth work, espousing roles as listeners, advocates and informal educators in evolving practice situations. Moreover, some innovative youth work responses to young people’s needs were being recognised in some formal inter-agency contexts. Nevertheless, the data depicted youth workers conjuring up ‘the blitz spirit’ to deal with funding shortfalls that created feelings of being ‘the poor relation’ at times and finding themselves ‘fighting the corner’ against the onset of managerial preoccupations with targeting and outcome measures that side-lined the professional value base. The discursive lens illuminated the dialogical interaction that was positioning speakers in the discourse and constructing social and professional identities. It was evident that these were animated accounts of practice, infused with evocative imagery and capturing vibrant youth work voices that articulated the youth work point of view, an under-represented perspective in wider discourses on work with young people.

Youth-led provision within organisations that serve young people is not a new concept. However, the majority of youth-led work is project-based or within educational institutions, and little research exists regarding systemic youth-led work within non-educational youth organisations. This research followed a youth centre in North West England during its transition from a practitioner-led model to a more youth-led model. The aims of this research were to identify and analyse the logics and rationalities, practices and processes, and relationships that facilitated and/or hindered the process of change at the centre. The research began as a participant action research (PAR) project, which concluded abruptly mid-way through data collection. In collaboration with the youth centre, it morphed into an ethnography that examined youth-led work in the wider centre. The first contribution to knowledge is the analysis of the process of change using a complexity framework, which found that certain kinds of interactions heavily influenced the character of the centre and thus the process of change. The second contribution is in illustrating the way in which young people can realise their ability for youth leadership as an organic process rooted in context of their own interests and priorities.

Parenting capacity assessments (PCA) have been used in the child intervention system in Canada since at least the 1970s. They are used in other Western jurisdictions including the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and the United States. There is a relatively large literature that considers the ways in which these assessments might be conducted. This thesis, drawing upon the prior work of the candidate, seeks to show that, despite widespread use, the PCA is a colonial methodology that should not be used with Indigenous peoples of Canada. The PCA draws upon Eurocentric understandings of parenting, definitions of minimal or good enough parenting, definitions of family and community as well as the use of methods that have neither been developed nor normed with Indigenous peoples. Using critical theory, particularly "Red Pedagogy" which is rooted in an Indigenous lens, the PCA is deconstructed to examine applicability to Indigenous populations of Canada, and potentially other populations that do not fit a Eurocentric understanding of family and parenting. Implications for clinical practice with Indigenous peoples are drawn which may have relevance for other populations.