Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Authors:Richard Devine, Katy Benson, Samantha Fitz-Symonds, David Westlake, Katie Campbell, Clive Diaz Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the current state of literature on peer parental advocacy, offering practical insights and ideas for researchers and practitioners interested in this evolving field. This narrative review is a comprehensive, critical and objective analysis of the current knowledge on peer parental advocacy. Parental peer advocacy (PPA) has seen growing interest, with increasing research detailing the benefits and challenges. It is now being considered within children’s services across the UK, drawing upon the success of similar initiatives, especially in the USA. There is a compelling case for PPA, not least as it may contribute to resolving the longstanding challenges within children services of families having the opportunity to meaningfully participate in decision-making (Corby et al., 1996; Muench et al., 2017; Bekaert et al., 2021). Parental advocacy (PA) continues to be an evolving area of academic research and policy development both in the United Kingdom and internationally. Emerging research suggests a compelling case for an expansion in PPA within child welfare and protection systems, specifically in case, program and policy advocacy. PA continues to be an evolving area of academic research and policy development both in the United Kingdom and internationally. Emerging research suggests a compelling case for an expansion in PPA within child welfare and protection systems, specifically in case, program and policy advocacy. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first UK-based narrative reviews that critically analyses the research, highlighting the limitations and strengths of adopting PPA as an approach. Citation: Journal of Children's Services PubDate: 2023-10-24 DOI: 10.1108/JCS-08-2022-0020 Issue No:Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print (2023)
Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Authors:Sarah Louise Parry, Zarah Eve, Vasileios Stamou, Alice Brockway, Daniela Di Basilio Abstract: Half of adulthood mental health challenges begin by the age of 14-years-old, making the need for early-intervention clear. This study aims to evaluate a new service model that promotes early-intervention through a community based low-intensity Hub. Clinical data from 2,384 young people were analysed through within-group, pre- and post-comparisons and qualitative survey, and interview data was analysed through content analysis. Overall, participants reported that they were highly satisfied with the Hub and the low-intensity brief interventions met their needs. Participants reported that learning new skills, having a place to talk and positive therapeutic relationships were beneficial. The Hub appeared to be less successful for young people with complex mental health difficulties. As a service, the adoption of the Hub model reduced waiting list times by more than half. The quantitative data demonstrated that engaging with the Hub reduced symptoms of psychological distress. Qualitative analyses suggest that access to local, community, welcoming and “less clinical” support was beneficial, and the type of brief interventions offered was less important than therapeutic relationships. This is the first study of a novel “Hub” model for low-intensity brief interventions in a socio-economically deprived area of England. Local knowledge, community integrated support, therapeutic relationships and a welcoming environment were viewed as more beneficial than the type of brief interventions offered. Consequently, community spaces can be created to be therapeutic and beneficial for mental health outside of a traditional conceptualisation of clinical support. Citation: Journal of Children's Services PubDate: 2023-08-07 DOI: 10.1108/JCS-12-2021-0053 Issue No:Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print (2023)
Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Authors:Ciarán Murphy Abstract: This study aims to explore the challenges of being simultaneously “intimate insider” and “relative outsider” whilst undertaking an ethnography into a statutory child protection team. As a novice researcher seeking to explore a world of which he was already part, ethnography was considered the most suitable means for exploring child protection social workers’ discretion. However, by subscribing to binary notions of “insider” and “outsider” at the commencement of the study, the author underplayed the dilemma of reconciling friendships with his researcher role, as well as the barriers that his more junior organisational status could create. This study provides an autoethnographic account of these challenges, and the author’s evolving status and movement between “insider” and “outsider” relative to different groups within the children’s services department. The implications include the potential for being simultaneously “insider” and “outsider” when undertaking research within one’s employing organisation; the need to reconcile challenging social work tasks with researcher responsibilities; and the difficulty of maintaining pre-existing relationships, whilst also cultivating an objective research profile. This paper offers an important contribution to the limited accounts of conducting research from “inside” a statutory children’s services department and will be of benefit to early career researchers considering a research project within their own “backyard”. Citation: Journal of Children's Services PubDate: 2023-08-04 DOI: 10.1108/JCS-02-2023-0006 Issue No:Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print (2023)
Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Authors:Dimitar Karadzhov, Graham Wilson, Sophie Shields, Erin Lux, Jennifer C. Davidson Abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore 232 service providers’ and policymakers’ experiences of supporting children’s well-being during the pandemic, across sectors, in 22 countries – including Kenya, the Philippines, South Africa, India, Scotland, Sweden, Canada and the USA, in the last quarter of 2020. A smartphone survey delivered via a custom-built app containing mostly open-ended questions was used. Respondents were recruited via professional networks, newsletters and social media. Qualitative content analysis was used. The findings reveal numerous system-level challenges to supporting children’s well-being, particularly virus containment measures, resource deficiencies and inadequate governance and stakeholder coordination. Those challenges compounded preexisting inequalities and poorly affected the quality, effectiveness and reach of services. As a result, children’s rights to an adequate standard of living; protection from violence; education; play; and right to be heard were impinged upon. Concurrently, the findings illustrate a range of adaptive and innovative practices in humanitarian and subsistence support; child protection; capacity-building; advocacy; digitalisation; and psychosocial and educational support. Respondents identified several priority areas – increasing service capacity and equity; expanding technology use; mobilising cross-sectoral partnerships; involving children in decision-making; and ensuring more effective child protection mechanisms. This study seeks to inform resilience-enabling policies and practices that foster equity, child and community empowerment and organisational resilience and innovation, particularly in anticipation of future crises. Using a novel approach to gather in-the-moment insights remotely, this study offers a unique international and multi-sectoral perspective, particularly from low- and middle-income countries. Citation: Journal of Children's Services PubDate: 2023-07-26 DOI: 10.1108/JCS-10-2022-0028 Issue No:Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print (2023)
Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Authors:Stephen Case, Roger Smith Abstract: This study aims to critically evaluate the trajectory of the “Child First” guiding principle for youth justice in England and Wales, which challenges adult-centric constructions of children (when they offend) as “threatening” and asserts a range of theoretical and principled assumptions about the nature of childhood and children’s evolving capacity. Focussing on how Child First seeks to transcend the socio-historically bifurcated (polarised/dichotomised) thinking and models/strategies/frameworks of youth justice, this study examines the extent and nature of this binary thinking and its historical and contemporary influence on responses to children’s offending, latterly manifested as more hybridised (yet still discernibly bifurcated) approaches. Analyses identified an historical and contemporary influence on bifurcated responses to offending by children in the United Kingdom/England and Wales, subsequently manifested as more hybridised (yet still discernibly bifurcated) approaches. Analyses also identified a contemporary, progressive challenge to bifurcated youth justice thinking, policy and practice through the “Child First” guiding principle. By tracing the trajectory of Child First as an explicit, progressive challenge to previous youth justice thinking and formal “approaches”, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, they are the first to question whether, in taking this approach, Child First represents a clean break with the past, or is just the latest in a series of strategic realignments in youth justice seeking to resolve inherent tensions between competing constructions of children and their behaviour. Citation: Journal of Children's Services PubDate: 2023-07-04 DOI: 10.1108/JCS-02-2023-0005 Issue No:Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print (2023)
Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Authors:Helen Ruth Hodges, Jonathan Scourfield Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to consider some possible reasons for the relatively high rate in Wales of children looked after by local authorities. Selected potential explanations for Wales having higher rates were tested against aggregate data from published 2021 Government statistics. Wales was compared with England and English regions for area deprivation, local authority spending, placements at home and kinship foster care. Descriptive statistics were produced, and linear regression was used where appropriate. Wales has higher overall children looked-after rates and a bigger recent increase in these than any English region. Deprivation in Wales was higher than in most English regions. However, a smaller percentage of Welsh variation in local authority looked-after rates was explained by deprivation than was the case for England. Spending on preventative services has increased in recent years in Wales whilst decreasing in England, and there was not a clear relationship between spending on preventative services and the looked-after rate. Wales had a higher rate of care orders placed at home and more children per head of population in kinship foster care than any English region. Some of the explanations that have been suggested for Wales’s particularly high looked-after rates seem to be supported by the evidence from aggregate data and others do not. Practice variation is likely to also be an important part of the picture. This is an original comparison of Wales, England and English regions using aggregate data. More fine-grained analysis is needed using individual-level data, multivariate analysis and qualitative methods. Citation: Journal of Children's Services PubDate: 2023-07-03 DOI: 10.1108/JCS-02-2022-0007 Issue No:Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print (2023)
Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Authors:Andrew Jolly Abstract: This paper aims to make the case for early action approaches with migrant families, introducing a set of principles for practice, mapped against the Professional Capabilities Framework for social work and the Social Work England professional standards. The paper first explores the context of social work with migrant families, outlining the challenges and gaps in our conceptual understanding of this work. The paper then introduces a conceptual model of work with migrant families which draws on the literature from social work and allied professions, and informed by social work values and ethics. Current social work practice with migrant children has been criticised as defensive, procedural and lacking a coherent conceptual basis, particularly for those who are subject to the no recourse to public funds (NRPF) rule. This field of social work practice would benefit from an evidence-informed model of practice, anchored in human rights approaches and focused on early action. Eight principles, drawn from existing good practice in other social work and social care contexts, are outlined as the basis for a new model of practice in social work with migrant families. The NRPF rule is a provision in the immigration rules that prevents people who are subject to immigration control from claiming most social security benefits in the UK. In recent years, there has been an increased interest in research about the NRPF rule and its negative impact on children. However, there is currently no evaluated model of social work practice for children and families with NRPF. Citation: Journal of Children's Services PubDate: 2023-06-02 DOI: 10.1108/JCS-12-2021-0056 Issue No:Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print (2023)
Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Authors:Silje Sommer Hukkelberg, Terje G. Ogden, Knut Taraldsen Abstract: This study aims to investigate outcomes of multisystemic therapy (MST) using the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI) – part I. This study, using a pre-post design, included a sample of 2,123 Norwegian youths (mean age = 14.7, SD = 1.34). The MST team supervisors assessed the YLS/CMI risk factors in addition to five behavioral treatment goals (Lives at home, Attends school/work, No violence/threats, Law-abiding and Drug-free) before and after treatment. In addition, data included responses from parent interviews six months post treatment. Significant correlations were found between the total and dynamic YLS/CMI change scores and the additive index of behavioral treatment goals. In addition, the YLS/CMI change scores predicted the five treatment goals at the termination of treatment and at six-month follow-up. The results indicate that the YLS/CMI is a valuable assessment tool for predicting the achievement of MST behavioral goals in adolescents with serious problem behavior. This study provides an evaluation of the YLS/CMI in a Norwegian context and adds support for continued use of the YLS/CMI in MST. This paper provides new insights about the YLS/CMI inventory as a tool for examining treatment change in MST. Results show that the YLS/CMI captures relevant risk factors in the youths’ environment. Citation: Journal of Children's Services PubDate: 2023-05-19 DOI: 10.1108/JCS-05-2022-0016 Issue No:Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print (2023)
Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Authors:Noor Ismael, Khader Almhdawi, Ala’a Jaber, Saddam Kana'an, Sana'a Al Shlool Abstract: This study aims to investigate the differences in participation patterns between children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and children with typical development (TD) in Jordan. The study used a cross-sectional comparative design and convenient and snowball sampling. The sample consisted of 60 children (30 ASD and 30 TD), mean age (nine years), who completed the Children’s Assessment of Participation and Enjoyment and the Preferences for Activities of Children (CAPE/PAC) via interview. Analyses consisted of descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney U tests. Children with ASD had significantly lower participation Diversity (U = 24.00, p < 0.000) and Intensity (U = 110.00, p < 0.000) than children with TD. In addition, children with ASD had significantly lower participation preference in Physical (U = 145.50, p < 0.000), Self-Improvement (U = 163.50, p < 0.000), Skill-Based (U = 281.00, p = 0.01), Social activities (U = 307.50, p = 0.03) and total PAC scale score (U = 246.50, p = 0.003). However, children with ASD had significantly higher Enjoyment (U = 274, p < 0.000) than children with TD. Children with ASD have restricted participation patterns due to certain ASD features like extreme sensory processing patterns. However, limited research compared participation patterns between school-aged children with ASD and children with TD. This study concluded that participation patterns in children with ASD are different from children with TD. Citation: Journal of Children's Services PubDate: 2023-05-11 DOI: 10.1108/JCS-10-2021-0049 Issue No:Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print (2023)
Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Authors:Hannah Richardson Abstract: Serious case reviews remind us that there is much to learn about inter-agency activity. Professional identity is a key phenomenon influencing work behaviour, especially during inter-agency activity. Yet, this link is complex and not well understood within the context of UK children’s services. With an agenda of improving outcomes for children and their families, The purpose of this research paper is to conduct a systematic literature review on this topic to develop a conceptual model aimed at informing how practitioners mobilise their professional identity during inter-agency activity. This paper used meta-ethnography to synthesise the available research. This method is suitable for researchers who are interested in conceptual or theoretical understandings of a particular phenomenon as opposed to describing individual accounts or experiences. The findings support postmodern accounts of identity and show the construct as fluid, contingent and constituted within interaction. Professional identities are mobilised through the sharing of professional knowledge, which is underpinned by the performative nature of language. Mobilisations can lead to both positive and negative consequences, which can act as a barrier to and facilitator of inter-agency activity. Inter-agency working is integral to the function of children’s services but remains an undertheorised concept, and this had led to a dearth of guiding theory on inter-agency practice. By drawing on relevant psychological theory, the proposed model provides a unique psycho-social perspective that articulates the important role of identity during inter-agency activity, which would be of interest to professionals working in children’s services. Citation: Journal of Children's Services PubDate: 2023-05-05 DOI: 10.1108/JCS-01-2022-0001 Issue No:Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print (2023)
Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Authors:Emily Rice, Shelley O'Connor Abstract: Care leavers are identified as a vulnerable group within UK society and, unsurprisingly, are more susceptible to mental health problems. Research highlights inadequacies among UK Government provisions combined with poorer outcomes for care leavers. This paper aims to measure the effectiveness of provisions on mental health when transitioning from the care system to adulthood. A systematic review was conducted to identify and highlight the inadequacies of provisions in place to aid a care leaver’s transition and the effects on their mental health. Of the 211 studies identified from the search, six studies met the eligibility criteria and were deemed eligible by the researcher for further exploration of themes. The findings identified feeling isolated, training given to care professionals and caregivers, collaboration, lack of preparation and support and access and gaps in provisions as the five key themes. The overarching theme of interconnectedness and interplay between subthemes, mental health and a care leaver’s transition, is strongly presented throughout. Many participants within the individual studies reported negative findings illustrating the weaknesses of provisions and the negative effect on their mental health. Furthermore, the findings emphasise the unique nature of everyone’s experience transitioning out of the care system. A limitation of the review is the selection of key words, which may have restricted the results produced during the main search, subsequently affecting the amount of relevant data extracted and synthesised. Finally, less emphasis on grey literature and more on empirical studies reduces the probability of discovering null or negative findings, therefore increasing the chances of publication bias (Paez, 2017). A small number of eligible studies increase the risk of not making important comparisons, prompting a wider search to be conducted in the future. An unequal ratio between national and international research in the systematic review restricts fresh perspectives and strategies concerning the mental health of care leavers. Care leavers are identified as a vulnerable group within society and, unsurprisingly, are more susceptible to mental health problems. The UK Government enforces national and local policies to support young adults leaving the care system and transitioning to independence. However, previous research highlights inadequacies among provisions, combined with poorer mental health outcomes for care leavers. Following on from gaps in the current findings, an investigation into regional disparities across provisions aimed at assisting care leavers transitioning to independence would produce useful information for the field and policymakers. Although current research addresses the essence of interplay between mental health and transitioning, further research is required to help build a supporting argument for adaptations and improvements in policies and practice. This study supports the argument for an increase in attention from the UK Government and policymakers to improve the quality and quantity of support for a population often underserved and marginalised, especially in terms of reducing poorer mental health outcomes. Citation: Journal of Children's Services PubDate: 2023-05-01 DOI: 10.1108/JCS-02-2022-0010 Issue No:Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print (2023)
Hybrid journal (It can contain Open Access articles)
[362 journals]
