Children and Young People ‘Looked After’?
Education, Intervention and the Everyday Culture of Care in Wales
Editor(s) Louise Roberts,Dawn Mannay,Alyson Rees
Language: English
Genre(s): Philosophy
- February 2019 · 288 pages ·216x138mm
- · Paperback - 9781786833556
- · eBook - pdf - 9781786833563
- · eBook - epub - 9781786833570
About The Book
Despite a proliferation of legislative action in response to differential outcomes, the relative educational, employment and lifecourse disadvantages of individuals who have experienced the care system remains a pressing issue of widespread international concern. In Wales, a significant body of work has been produced on and with care-experienced children and young people. This edited collection attempts to highlight these valuable insights in a single volume, with contributions from well-established and early career scholars working in different traditions – including education, psychology, policy studies, sociology and social work – to provide a unique opportunity for reflection across disciplinary boundaries and shed new light on common problems and opportunities stimulated by research in the field of social care. The volume introduces a range of contexts and sites – including the home, the school, alternative educational institutions, contact centres, and the natural environment – and reflexively explores changes and continuities within the political and geographical landscape that constitutes Wales. Each chapter introduces insights, reflections and recommendations about the care system and its impacts, which will be useful for readers across geographical contexts who are concerned with improving the lives of children, young people and wider family networks.
Endorsements
‘This book presents an authoritative and fascinating account of looked-after children’s views and experiences, and of the effectiveness of the system designed to support them. I am heartened by the values that link much of this book, which recognise children and young people’s rights to an equal opportunity to fulfil their potential, however difficult their early start has been, and to act as active participants, often partners, in the research process. The empirical evidence presented here is rooted in Wales, and it will therefore be essential reading for practitioners and policy makers in Wales, but the evidence, analysis and methodological insights will have resonance internationally.’
-Professor Sally Holland, Children’s Commissioner for Wales
‘This excellent compendium of research, theory and interventions into the lived experience of children and young people placed in the care system in Wales addresses critical issues that are by no means confined to one country but extend globally. The range, richness and utility of research-driven insights into the impacts and outcomes of care defines this uniquely valuable text. If you want to be part of improving the lives and life chances of children in care then, quite simply, this book is essential reading.’
-Emeritus Professor Andrew Pithouse, Cardiff School of Social Sciences
‘This edited volume draws together a significant body of research in Wales concerning care experienced children and young people. Using innovative methodologies, and with a welcome focus on strengths as well as needs, this book is an important read for anyone who cares about improving the lives of children and young people in care.’
-Emerita Professor June Statham, UCL Institute of Education
'This timely and relevant book takes an in depth look at the many issues facing care experience young people. Its authors are mindful not to lump these young people into one group and to ensure the “voice and lived“ experience of the young people shape the narrative. What emerges is a rigorous and comprehensive account that should be read by anybody who is working with care experience young people. Whilst the focus is Wales and the importance of context is highlighted the issues raised will resonate with practitioners and policy makers across the UK.'
- Kieran Breen - https://www.leicestershirecares.co.uk/
Contents
List of figures and tables
List of contributors
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction - Dawn Mannay, Alyson Rees and Louise Roberts
I. Education and policy intervention
2. Charting the rise of children and young people looked
after in Wales - Martin Elliott
3. Educational interventions for children and young people
in care: A review of outcomes, implementation and
acceptability - Gwyther Rees, Rachel Brown, Phil Smith and Rhiannon Evans
4. Exploring the educational attainment and achievement
of children who are ‘looked after’ in formal kinship care - Rebecca C. Pratchett and Paul Rees
5. Promoting the education of children in care: Reflections
of children and carers who have experienced ‘success’ - Paul Rees and Amy Munro
6. Transitions from care to higher education: A case study
of a young person’s journey - Gemma Allnatt
II. The culture of care and the everyday lives of children
and young people
7. The daily lived experiences of foster care: The centrality
of food and touch in family life - Alyson Rees
8. The natural environment and its benefits for children
and young people looked after - Holly Gordon
9. Factors that promote positive supervised birth family
contact for children in care - Joanne Pye and Paul Rees
10. Yet another change: The experience of movement for
children and young people looked after - Rebecca Girling
11. ‘A family of my own’: When young people in and
leaving state care become parents in Wales - Louise Roberts
III. Participatory, qualitative and collaborative approaches
12. Positionality and reflexivity: Conducting qualitative interviews with parents who adopt children from foster care - Claire Palmer
13. Sandboxes, stickers and superheroes: Employing creative techniques to explore the aspirations and experiences of children and young people who are looked after - Dawn Mannay and Eleanor Staples
14. A view from a Pupil Referral Unit: Using participatory methods with young people in an education setting - Phil Smith
15. Enabling care-experienced young people’s participation in research: CASCADE Voices - Eleanor Staples, Louise Roberts, Jennifer Lyttleton-Smith, Sophie Hallett and CASCADE Voices
16. Lights, camera, action: Translating research findings into policy and practice impacts with music, film and artwork - Dawn Mannay, Louisa Roberts, Eleanor Staples and Ministry of Life
IV. Conclusion
17 Conclusion - Dawn Mannay, Alyson Rees and Louise Roberts
Index