Being a "Case"

This week Careknowledge issued a special report in which Pauline Ormond, who spent 11 years in care and subsequently helped found Who Cares? Scotland, details her experiences in relation to accessing her own care files and the ways in which record keeping affects service users and their subsequent understanding of their experiences in care.

Social Pedagogy vs Corporate Parenting

In a Huffington Post Article this week to mark World Social Work Day, Hayley Meachin laments the state of Corporate Parenting in the UK through which looked after children leave care disadvantaged, with higher rates of criminal offending and teenage pregnancy, and lower educational achievement. Meachin suggests we should look to other countries, particularily Germany and Denmark where the social pedagogy model predominates and the outcomes for young people in need of state care are correspondingly improved.  For further reading see Petrie, P. (2006). Working with children in care. Open University Press.

Action on neglect in schools

Interprofessional working and awareness and action by schools and health professionals is essential if children suffering neglect or abuse are to be reached as quicky and effectively as possible. A article in this weeks Guardian highlights how some schools are working to help children being neglected.

Children's experiences of care and destitution

Two documents have been published recently giving voice to the experiences of children and young people. The first, from the Children's Society focuses on refugee children and families in the UK and their experiences of destitution. Pinter, I. (2012). I don't feel human. Children's Society.
 The OFSTED (2012). Children's care monitor 2011 has also been published reporting the views of looked after children on the state of social care in England.

Speech and Language Therapy in Youth Offending work.

The Youth Offending Team in bolton is currently benefiting from the services of a speech and language therapist, employed via the local NHS Trust. Ian Warriner works with young offenders, an estimated 60% of whom have communication difficulties, making it difficult for them to work with the services which aim to keep them from reoffending. Read all about it in the Guardian, 7 February 2012.

Helping parents of looked after children

This month's issue of Children in Scotland has an article on  a unique group-based intervention in West Lothian, working with the parents of looked after children, many of whom had  discrupted childhoods themselves. The intervention groups have had some success in mixing psychotherapeutic approaches with cognitive behavioural techniques; there have been improvements in parent-child interactions and several children have been able to return home, an outcome which was not expected previous to the intervention.
Rogers, J. (2012). "Fix us parents so we can fix our kids". Children in Scotland. 129, 10-11.
Find it at Serials 362.7.

Child Protection on TV

You might want to set your +box or program reminder to watch the new BBC2 series Protecting Our children, first episode to be screened Monday 30.1.12 at 9pm. Following child protection staff in Bristol, the programme also shows interprofessional working with NHS, Family Courts and the police. The series has been made in partnership with the Open University.