Abstract: Unaccompanied minors looking for asylum in industrialized nations come with a host of psychosocial needs associated with separation and settlement. They are also resourceful, and willing to make the best of themselves in their new environments. This paper reviews literature concerning vulnerability and resilience that has emerged from refugee related studies, and those from social work with children looked after by local authorities. In combining these two areas of enquiry, the paper tests the messages they contain in reference to the work of a young asylum seekers project run in the United Kingdom. It confirms the view that unaccompanied minors are children first and foremost, exhibiting understandable vulnerabilities associated with separation and trauma, as well as being carriers of capacities that can help them to recover and settle after arrival. In this paper, it is proposed that promoting psychosocial well-being for unaccompanied minors involves entering the young people's inner and outer worlds with therapeutic care, to aid the processes of self-recovery. It also involves finding ways to regenerate a lost sense of belonging and of being in charge of their lives. Examples from the project's work with the young people are used to illustrate the complexity of helping them find a sense of home within their new territories.

Abstract: This paper reports on a research study which explored the worries and problems of young carers in Edinburgh. Sixty-one young carers took part in the study, conducted between April and June 2002. Findings indicate that young carers identify significant worries and problems in relation to their well-being, and that these come over and above any ‘normal’ adolescent difficulties. It is suggested that these findings may have important implications for young carers’ mental health, now and in the future, and contain important lessons for child and family social work in general.

Abstract: This paper documents the views of a sample of 80 children and young people, aged 10–18 years, living in foster and residential care placements in England, regarding their educational experience whilst being looked after. The children were interviewed as part of an ongoing evaluation of the Taking Care of Education project, a development programme designed to facilitate improvements in the education of looked after children, co-ordinated by the National Children's Bureau and funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation. Interviews with the sample asked children to assess their current educational progress and identify individuals who supported or hindered their education, as well as the availability of educational support in care placements. Teaching staff were frequently mentioned as providers of support, whilst social workers were often associated with hindering educational progress. Children and young people had access to a range of educational supports in care placements, and these were more widely available in residential settings than in foster care. Children offered a range of pertinent suggestions as to how the educational experience of those in the public care system might be improved.

Abstract: Examining the assessment of need in children's services this book addresses the full spectrum of practice, policy and research developments in the field. The contributors include leading academics, policy makers and senior practitioners who generate a broad-based holistic approach to the assessment of children in need. They show how needs assessment in children's services can be used to tackle problems such as low achievement, mental ill-health and social exclusion at both individual and strategic levels. Approaches to the Assessment of Need in Children's Services will enable service managers and practitioners to respond effectively to the increasing pressure to monitor outcomes and effectiveness in child care work, and to improve and coordinate children's welfare service provision at individual and community levels and provides an indispensable overview and analysis for anyone working or studying in child welfare and social care.

Abstract: Although it is only a minority of displaced and persecuted people globally who seek refuge in ‘Western’ countries, they meet an increasingly hostile reception. This paper focuses on the situation facing children seeking asylum with or without their families in Britain and Australia, and the implications for children's rights and for social work. The policy background and its racist foundations in both countries are outlined. Despite geopolitical differences, there are unnerving parallels. Legislative changes and policy complexity signal increasingly punitive attitudes towards asylum seekers. The situation of children and families in the community is discussed in terms of the exclusion of asylum seekers from basic rights, and specific issues for separated children. Even more damaging is the incarceration of children and families in detention centres, and the emerging research is explored. In both countries there is widespread flouting of children's rights, and children also feature as pawns in ideological contests. However, they also act autonomously and illustrate an inclusive model of citizenship. The role of social workers in the statutory and voluntary sectors is considered, and the paper concludes with a discussion of the challenges for social work of avoiding collusion with repressive policies and actively promoting human rights.

Abstract: Using qualitative data gathered from 62 problem drug using parents in Glasgow, Scotland, this paper explores the role played by the extended family in protecting children from some of the negative effects of parental drug use. However, the data also indicated that the intervention of the extended family, whilst often critical, was not without its tensions and difficulties for parents, for the extended family and for the children too. What seemed to obtain in most cases was a complex and volatile mix of practical and emotional concerns over children's appropriate care and issues of responsibility and obligation to the child. These in turn were overlaid by expressions of anxiety, worry, anger and disappointment over both the parent's drug problem and its profound effect on the family. Strained family dynamics and a lack of a supportive welfare infrastructure can all compromise the ability of kin to provide a stable, nurturing environment for children over time. In a worst case scenario it can lead to a breakdown of these care arrangements, leaving these already vulnerable children exposed to further rupture, emotional damage and instability. If we are to avoid such outcomes it is crucial that we first identify and then work to rectify those factors that compromise the abilities of extended family carers to look after these children both in the short and the longer term.

Abstract: This article explores the issues and dilemmas that arise when social workers attempt to work with African refugee and asylum seeking children and their families. There is a complex interplay between social workers skills and knowledge in this area and the prevailing social attitudes towards these groups of service users. By initially setting the context of mass movement of peoples from situations of danger in their countries of origin the discussion highlights the key issues and shows the tensions of practice intervention in this area. Drawing on a small-scale research study with social workers and discussions with immigration officers and workers in voluntary agencies working with refugees and asylum seekers the article draws some conclusions about the lessons that can be learnt in order to improve practice. (authors)

Abstract: About the Editors. About the Contributors. Foreword. Preface. PART I: UNDERPINNINGS. Developmental Underpinnings of Children s Testimony (K. Saywitz). Cognitive Underpinnings of Children s Testimony (L. Baker Ward and P. Ornstein). Child Protection Concerns When Questioning Children (M. Page and G. Precey). Review of Part I. PART II: MEMORY AND INTERVIEWING. The Development of Autobiographical Memory (R. Fivush). Childrens Memories for Repeated Events (M. Powell and D. Thomson). Children s Source Monitoring (D. Lindsay). The Construction of False Events in Memory (K. Pezdek and T. Hinz). Children s Suggestibility Research: Implications for the Courtroom and the Forensic Interview (S. Ceci, et al.). The Effects of Forensic Interview Practices on the Quality of Information Provided by Alleged Victims of Child Abuse (M. Lamb, et al.). How and Why Do Children Respond to Nonsensical Questions? (A. Waterman, et al.). Enhancing Children s Accounts: How Useful Are Non verbal Techniques? (M. E. Pipe, et al.). Deception in Children: A Literature Review and Implications for Children s Testimony (A. Vrij). Review of Part II: PART III: COURT ISSUES. Innovative Procedures for Child Witnesses (J. Cashmore). New Measures and New Challenges: Children s Experiences of the Court Process (A. Wade). A German Perspective on Children s Testimony (G. Kohnken). Child Witnesses and the Oath (T. Lyon). Child Witnesses Experiences Post Court: Effects of Legal Involvement (R. Edelstein, et al.). Persuading and Controlling: The Theory of Cross Examination in Relation to Children (E. Henderson). What Do Judges Know about Young Witnesses? (J. Plotnikoff and R. Woolfson). Young Witnesses: Still No Justice (B. Esam). Review of Part III. PART IV: ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVES ON CHILDREN S TESTIMONY. Methodological Issues in the Study of Children s Testimony (B. Clifford). A Sociological Approach to Child Witness Research (C. Wattam). Remembering the Point: A Feminist Perspective on Children s Evidence (L. Kelly). Review of Part IV. Epilogue. Glossary. Index.

Abstract: This paper discusses findings from a recently completed study of adolescent foster care, which included a detailed assessment of the parenting approaches and strategies used by the foster carers of adolescents in long-term placements. Sixty-eight foster carers were interviewed at two points in time. The first interview was conducted two months after the start of a new adolescent placement and the second after the placement had been continuing for a year, or at the point of disruption if this occurred earlier. The interview schedules were designed specifically for this study and were based upon well-established techniques developed in other studies of parenting. They enabled the researchers to make summary ratings for each carer on established dimensions of parenting such as control and discipline, responsiveness and the level of engagement with the child. The researchers assessed how these strategies changed and developed in relation to the young person's behaviour and whether these approaches influenced either the likelihood of placement disruption or the quality of the placement for the child. This paper describes the parenting strategies used by the foster carers, highlighting the areas of parenting that significantly affected the placement outcomes and the corresponding implications for policy and practice.

Abstract: This paper reports on research on the characteristics, management and therapeutic treatment of sexually abused and/or abusing children in substitute care. Of the 40 sexually abused and/or abusing young people aged 10 or over in the interview sample, two-thirds showed sexual behaviours in the placement studied but one-third did not. The range of sexual behaviours shown by the young people is described. Analysis of the findings shows that four key components of effective management are supervision, adequate sex education, modification of inappropriate sexual behaviour and therapeutic attention to the needs that underlie such behaviour. Supervision includes planning for safe care before placement, preparing other children in the setting, teaching young people how to keep themselves safe when out on their own, and careful monitoring of contact with birth family members. The need for a proactive approach to sex education is stressed. Effective management approaches to masturbation, sexualized behaviour and sexually abusing behaviour are discussed but the processes of denial and minimization of sexual abuse and the development of high thresholds for action when looked after children are abused or at risk are shown to present obstacles to effective care. Finally, the importance of addressing children's deeper needs is emphasized, including the importance of regular review of their need for counselling. At the end of the article two case examples from the study are given.

Abstract: This article questions the way in which Norwegian immigration officials apply the principle of the child's best interests in cases concerning family reunion for unaccompanied asylum seeking minors in Norway. It is claimed that the official definition of child migrants and the interpretation of what is in their best interest does not take the child's background and circumstances into account with sufficient detail and sensitivity. This paper further discusses the bureaucratic procedures that turn an individual child with individual interests into a judicial and generalized prototype that appears to have the same interests as the immigration authorities. Thus the combination of a culture-blind and context-free consideration of an abstract child's best interests primarily serves to justify increasing restriction of family reunion for child migrants, and thereby serves the state's best interest at the cost of the individual child.

Abstract: The ‘social’ context in which social work is located is becoming increasingly unsettled by emerging patterns of mobility. Mobility is constrained for many social work service users who are trapped within disadvantaged areas, while for others it has become a forced necessity to cross national boundaries and inhabit uncertain status in their nations of destination. This article explores the responses of the social work profession to children seeking asylum in the Republic of Ireland. These children's complex needs, produced by the conditions of mobility they have encountered and by the conditions of arrival/settlement in Ireland, force social work practice to be orientated beyond the boundaries of the national welfare state. In order to explore the varied responses of the social work profession in the Republic of Ireland to asylum seeking children, three different groups of children are considered: children seeking asylum who have been separated from their parents; children who are seeking asylum with their parent(s)/family; and young Irish citizens whose asylum seeking parents are in danger of being deported. It argues that the provision of appropriate services for these children requires the development of post-national forms of social work practice.

Abstract: Mental health professionals working with parents who suffer from a mental illness often overlook the children within the family. Children whose parents are mentally ill face numerous obstacles to their own emotional development and these children are at higher risk for developing mental illnesses than other children. These risks can be decreased if protective or positive interventions are available for the children. This article will describe the development and implementation of Positive Connections, an effective intervention programme specifically designed for children whose parents have been diagnosed with a mental disorder. The effectiveness of this programme has been evaluated using both qualitative and quantitative research strategies, and the results are presented.

Abstract: In England, social services departments have a duty to provide care and protection to unaccompanied asylum seeking children from the point they arrive in the country. In recent years, research studies have identified a number of practice and policy issues of concern regarding the social services response to unaccompanied children. This paper focuses on three broad issues that emerge from the literature. The paper explores research concerns associated with (i) the referral and assessment process, (ii) the use of the child welfare legislative framework, and (iii) a number of issues arising from the provision of placements and other support offered to unaccompanied children. The findings of the research reviewed demonstrate that there are indeed clear grounds for concern. However, this paper argues that the evidence base is relatively weak and that as a result we know very little about the nature and context of the social work response to this group of children and young people.

Abstract: This paper reports the findings of an exploratory study of the response of social workers within a community care setting, in a large Dublin suburb, to cases involving men's abuse of women. This research aims to focus on what child protection workers do regarding this abuse, and what they say about what they do, thereby giving readers a sense of the action taking place in this social work team. The data, generated from both qualitative and quantitative methodological research, reflects this aim, as it taps into the working model of responses to men's abuse of women held by social workers, and identifies what influences that, thereby reflecting the realities and constraints of everyday work. At the time the research was carried out (2000), the results confirm that the prevalence of cases involving men's abuse of women on this team was in line with international findings. This research revealed an absence of a team policy, an agreed definition of intimate violence in this context and agency practice guidelines, and illuminated how these gaps act as a deterrent to effective intervention. This paper explores some of the ethical and practical dilemmas that may arise for child protection social workers intervening in cases where the abuse of women by men is present. Recommendations arising from this research identify a need for a clear policy and best practice guidelines for social work staff in relation to this abuse.

Abstract: This paper examines residential childcare workers’ perceptions of quality and how they relate to the growing performance measurement culture within social work over the last 10 years. In particular, it is concerned with examining how workers define quality services and what this means for the government's standards approach with its emphasis on tangible activities around process rather than outcomes. In addition this paper considers the prospects for developing quality in residential care and what frontline workers assess as adding to and/or subtracting from that activity. The growing performance measurement and standards culture being propagated by central government is considered in the context of workers’ perceptions and influence, particularly as it relates to the potential to maximize the quality of the service provided. In this context staff perceptions are obtained from nine children's units in two local authorities with the intention of providing research evidence to a debate very often centred on belief rather than fact.

Abstract: This paper provides a subjective, personal account of the impact and effect which the collation and sharing of information had and continues to have on my family during the course of a child protection investigation. By sharing my story I hope to preserve my unique, subjective experience in the midst of an impersonal and highly invasive bureaucratic process in an attempt to bridge the power divide between the professional and parent. I do not attempt to analyse theory but rather feelings, and identify the differing perceptions of those involved. The importance of the professional maintaining an open mind and challenging any preconceived assumptions or judgements about a family is also stressed. Child protection work must ensure that policies and practice comply with the rights laid down in the Human Rights Act (1998) and the professionals involved must be seen to promote and protect the rights of all vulnerable individuals.

Abstract: This paper is a personal reflection on how casework ideas have informed my own practice. Traditional social work is under threat. Casework, which was once a core method of working in social work, is particularly vulnerable because it has become a private, personal activity that is often misunderstood. It still has its followers but it is hard to find any modern accounts of casework practice. This paper attempts to remedy this by describing the application of casework ideas to work with families following registration of a child on the child protection register. The casework approach is described and illustrated using two case examples. This shows that casework with involuntary clients remains an important method of working but there are inherent constraints within the statutory role which limit what social workers can achieve in terms of therapy or in tackling poverty and inequality. This is followed by a discussion of contemporary social work practice and ideas for ways forward.

Abstract: Sarah Armstrong and Petrina Slaytor (eds) The Federation Press, Sydney, 2001, 200 pp. AUS$33.95. ISBN 1 86287 397 6

Abstract: Several studies of family placements have indicated poorer outcomes for children who are placed singly in new families. In an effort to understand why this may be so, this paper explores differential outcome among a group of children who were placed singly with adoptive or long-term foster families during middle childhood. A small number of these children were ‘only children’ at the time of placement but most had siblings living elsewhere. Particular attention is paid to preferential rejection by birth parents in the children's backgrounds. Preferential rejection indicates that one child has been rejected while siblings are accepted. This was found to be associated with poorer progress in placement. The methodological and statistical detail of the analyses are to be found in another paper. We focus here on describing the patterns which emerged and the ways in which the findings may assist practitioners in making and supporting permanent placements.

Abstract: This paper discusses findings from a small-scale study of the impact on child protection practice following implementation of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995. The Act introduced three new measures to allow the state to intervene in families to protect a child where there is a risk of significant harm. These include the child protection order, the child assessment order and the exclusion order. The child protection order provides for the removal of a child to (or his or her retention in) a place of safety. In the first two years of the operation of the 1995 Act fewer applications were made for this order compared with similar provisions under the previous legislation. This reduction in applications appears to be related to unfamiliarity with new legislation; greater scrutiny resulting from the more formal application to the sheriff court; and the introduction of a new legal criterion for intervention, the presence or likelihood of ‘significant harm’. The introduction of the ‘no order’ principle into Scottish child care law is also likely to be a factor.

Abstract: This paper reports the findings of a 3-month survey of young people calling the Message Home helpline. Message Home is a national freephone helpline available to people who have run away or left home which allows them to send a message to their family or carer, to seek confidential help and advice and, if necessary, to be helped to a place of safety. The paper explores the characteristics, circumstances and motivations of the young people contacting the helpline. It also considers who the young people contacted through the helpline and the kinds of messages that were relayed to parents, social services and others. This study differs from most preceding studies of runaways in recording the views of young people while they are missing. The immediacy palpable in their accounts highlights the distress and isolation experienced by many of these young people who have run away or been forced to leave home.

Abstract: Philippa Padbury with Nick Frost The Children's Society, London, 2002, 116 pp. £12.95. ISBN 1 899783 44 X

Abstract: This paper outlines some of the main findings from an exploratory study of a sample of 257 adolescents living in children's homes, foster homes and residential special schools ‘for pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties’ (‘EBD’). It focuses on the characteristics of service users, particularly contrasting the looked after and EBD groups. Though there are some similarities, there are also important differences between the populations in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, reasons for separation, legal status, family background and education. An attempt was made systematically to compare groups by creating a subsample of ‘difficult’ adolescents, based on involvement in anti-social behaviour. Unexpectedly, this revealed that half of the teenagers were not ‘difficult’. Factors associated with being identified as ‘difficult’ were explored.