Influencing policy and practice for young people in foster care: Learning from a model of collective participation

Jackson, Rebecca L.; Brady, Bernadine; Forkan, Cormac; Tierney, Edel; Kennan, Danielle

doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.104901

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…In navigating COVID-19, McKinsey and Company (2020) argue that such characteristics not only assist organisations in managing the crisis, they also point the way toward a more flexible operating model for the “next normal.” In our study attaching priority to and putting in place structures for youth participation, communication and relationship management emerged as critical factors. Research has shown evidence of better outcomes for children and young people when young people are heard and given a chance to participate in decisions that affect them (Jackson et al , 2020). Foróige’s Youth Reference Panel was established to ensure that the views of young people in various services throughout the country can be heard and acted upon by the organisation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From care packages to Zoom cookery classes: youth work during the COVID-19 “lockdown”

Shaw

Brady

Dolan

2022

JCS

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Purpose This paper aims to explore the experience of one large Irish youth work organisation, Foróige, to measures introduced during the initial phase of COVID-19 in 2020. In the face of the unprecedented crisis including the closure of schools and curtailment of many youth services, this paper examines how the organisation responded and adapted its service offering. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 senior managers and youth officers in Foróige to explore their perspectives on the organisation’s response. Participants were purposively sampled from across the operational management functions and also from regional levels and youth workers engaging in work “on the ground”. Findings Shifting from a face-to -face, relationship-based to a distanced mode of engagement with young people, colleagues and volunteers required significant adaptation of Foróige’s service model. Innovation took place both in the delivery platform and fundamentally, in its service orientation. The accelerated move to online youth work brought about by the pandemic enabled the organisation to embrace and learn from the challenges and opportunities posed by digital technology. Responding to the immediate and tangible needs of young people in receipt of services, staff found themselves working with families at the more basic levels of intervention. Originality/value This paper provides new insights into the nature of non-profit service innovation during a time of unprecedented crisis management. It highlights characteristics of organisational agility that can assist organisations in managing crises, while also pointing the way towards a more flexible operating model for youth work service delivery.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From care packages to Zoom cookery classes: youth work during the COVID-19 “lockdown”

Shaw

Brady

Dolan

2022

JCS

Self Cite

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“…Children were not considered to be partners in ethical reflection, despite the fact that children's needs, aspirations and realities should be at the core of service user involvement. Several studies have shown that effective service user participation involves encouraging and supporting children to express their views and challenge uncritical acceptance by authorities of the gatekeeping of their knowledge by professionals (Kiili and Moilanen, 2019;Tisdall, 2017;Jackson et al, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Professionals’ views on children’s service user involvement

Kiili

Itäpuisto

Moilanen

et al. 2021

JCS

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Purpose Children are gradually attaining recognition as service users and their involvement in service development has been advanced in recent years. This study draws on empirical research in social and health-care services designed for children and families. The purpose of this paper is to analyse how professionals understand children’s involvement as experts by experience. The focus is on professionals’ views and intergenerational relations. Design/methodology/approach The research data comprise 25 individual and 10 group interviews with managers and professionals working in social and health-care services in one Finnish province. The data were analysed using qualitative thematic analysis. Findings The professionals recognised the value of children’s service user involvement. However, they concentrated more on the challenges than the possibilities it presents. Health-care professionals emphasised parental needs and children’s vulnerability. In turn, the professionals from social services and child welfare non-governmental organisations perceived children as partners, although with reservations, as they discussed ethical issues widely and foregrounded the responsibilities of adults in protecting children. In general, the professionals in both domains saw themselves as having ethical responsibility to support children’s service user involvement while at the same time setting limits to it. Originality/value This study confirmed the importance of taking intergenerational relations into account when developing children’s service user involvement. The results indicate that professionals also need to reflect on the ethical challenges with children themselves as, largely owing to the generational position of children as minors, they rarely perceive them as partners in ethical reflection.

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“…Because students were aware of and feared the stigma associated with being identified as in care, they also expressed wanting to be treated the same, or as "normal" (Jackson et al, 2020;Jones et al, 2020;Ridge and Millar, 2000;Rogers, 2017). In attempts to "refuse the label," youth often engaged in what Jones at al.…”

Section: Children In Care and Stigmatizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stigmatized: In/Forming identities of children in Care

Janzen

2022

Power and Education

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Stigma devalues, discriminates, and magnifies social inequalities. For children in care, who have far worse educational outcomes than children who are not in care, stigma negatively effects the others’ perceptions, as well as the children’s perceptions of themselves. This paper is drawn from a larger research project which considered the ways in which school leaders supported children in care in their schools and the barriers they experienced in doing so. Engaging with the interviews of school leaders and drawing on poststructural theory, I critically explore schooling discourses related to being in care and how these in/form the subjectivities of children in care. The analysis illustrates how being in care inscribes discourses of deficiency, erasure, and vulnerability, and as a stigmatized identity marker enacts inequalities and exclusions by and within school. The discourses related to being in care magnify children’s precarity, determining certain norms of recognition including who cannot be—or are not allowed to be—seen as student-subjects.

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Influencing policy and practice for young people in foster care: Learning from a model of collective participation

Cited by 12 publications

References 39 publications

From care packages to Zoom cookery classes: youth work during the COVID-19 “lockdown”

From care packages to Zoom cookery classes: youth work during the COVID-19 “lockdown”

Professionals’ views on children’s service user involvement

Stigmatized: In/Forming identities of children in Care

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