Exploring the support services of foster care leavers: An institutional ethnographic study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ebenezer Cudjoe ◽  
Isaac Amoateng ◽  
James Nti‐Gyeabour ◽  
Pernille Wisti
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Support Services ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Care Leavers

scholarly journals Vulnerable childhood, vulnerable adulthood: Direct provision as aftercare for aged-out separated children seeking asylum in Ireland

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 386-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muireann Ní Raghallaigh ◽  
Liam Thornton
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Foster Care ◽  
Young People ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
The State ◽  
Migrant Status ◽  
After Care ◽  
Systematic Exploration ◽  
Care Leavers ◽  
Discretionary Powers

Ireland’s approach to after-care for ‘aged-out’ separated children is problematic. Currently, upon reaching the age of 18, most separated young people are moved to ‘direct provision’, despite the fact that the state can use discretionary powers to allow them to remain in foster care. Direct provision is the system Ireland adopts providing bed and board to asylum seekers, along with a weekly monetary payment. Separated young people in Ireland are in a vulnerable position after ageing out. Entry into the direct provision system, from a legal and social work perspective, is concerning. Utilising direct provision as a ‘form of aftercare’ emphasises governmental policy preferences that privilege the migrant status of aged-out separated children, as opposed to viewing this group as young people leaving care. In this article, utilising a cross-disciplinary approach, we provide the first systematic exploration of the system of aftercare for aged-out separated children in Ireland. In doing so, we posit two core reasons for why the aftercare system for aged-out separated children has developed as it has. First, doing so ensures that the state is consistent with its approach to asylum seekers more generally, in that it seeks to deter persons from claiming asylum in Ireland through utilisation of the direct provision system. Second, while the vulnerability of aged-out separated children is well-documented, the state (and others) ignore this vulnerability and are reluctant to offer additional aftercare supports beyond direct provision. This is due, we argue, to viewing aged-out separated children as having a lesser entitlement to rights than other care leavers, solely based on their migrant status.

The Experiences of Indigenous Young People Transitioning from Out-of-Home Care in Victoria, Australia

2019 ◽  
pp. 149-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Mendes ◽  
Bernadette Saunders ◽  
Susan Baidawi
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Home Care ◽  
Support Services ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Positive Role ◽  
Out Of Home Care ◽  
Indigenous Children ◽  
Care Leavers ◽  
The Impact

This chapter reports on exploratory research in Victoria, Australia, involving focus groups and interviews with service providers and Indigenous care leavers to examine the impact of existing support services. Indigenous children and young people are highly overrepresented in the Australian out-of-home care system. To date, neither specific research focusing on this group’s experiences as they transition from care nor an assessment of the Indigenous-specific and non-Indigenous supports and services available to them have been undertaken. Findings suggest that Aboriginal Community Controlled Organizations (ACCOs) play a positive role in working with non-Indigenous agencies to assist Indigenous care leavers. Participants identified a few key strategies to improve outcomes, such as facilitating stronger relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous services and improving ACCO resourcing.

scholarly journals Whose fault is failure? Contested perspectives of academic support in tertiary educational institutions in South Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 376-393
Author(s):  
David Jeffery ◽  
David Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Support Services ◽  
Student Support Services ◽  
Academic Support ◽  
Student Support ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Unexpected Finding ◽  
Participation In Higher Education

This paper explores the argument that to widen participation in higher education, educational institutions should bear a greater responsibility for students’ learning. Central to this debate is the notion of ‘academic support’. There are many perspectives on what works to scaffold student participation and learning but rarely are the perspectives of those receiving support taken into account. This paper reports the findings of an exploratory ethnographic study in which students in a vocational college in South Africa reflected on the nature of academic support and access to it. Student narratives that underpin their understandings of how the support system ‘worked’, and what responsibilities they and the college respectively bore for their studies, are compared to the official prescript on student support services in South Africa – the so-called ‘Student Support Services Manual’ which was developed by the South African Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). The data indicate sharp incongruences in thinking. While the student support services manual maintains that students are a product of their disadvantaged contexts and therefore require an institutional form of academic support, students themselves placed much less responsibility for the provision of academic support on the colleges. Instead, they attributed their success or failure to ‘character’ and their own dispositions towards learning. This is an unexpected finding in the context of an often highly charged debate on the factors that constrain learning and learning outcomes. This paper argues that it is this ‘locus of control’ that undermines the idea that student success is dependent on prescription alone.

Care-leaving in South Africa: an international and social justice perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Bond
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
Support Services ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Care Leavers ◽  
Poor Outcomes

AbstractInternationally, the care-leaving debate began in the 1970s. The poor outcomes associated with care-leaving in the United Kingdom, United States of America and Australia prompted attention resulting in policy change in recent years, which continues to develop. The experience and outcomes for care leavers in South Africa reflects that of their contemporaries in other countries, however, contextual factors compound the problems that they face and there is little support available to them. This paper discusses some of the challenges facing care leavers and the development of the care-leaving debate, legislation and policy in the United Kingdom, United States and Australia. A comparison of the care-leaving arena in South Africa and the support services available to care leavers in the different countries will be presented. The paper concludes by arguing that the absence of services for care leavers is a neglect of the state's responsibility as corporate parent, and represents an issue of social justice.

scholarly journals How Do People Become Foster Carers in Portugal? The Process of Building the Motivation

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 230
Author(s):  
Elisete Diogo ◽  
Francisco Branco
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Home Care ◽  
Support Services ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Family Context ◽  
Personal Life ◽  
Foster Family ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Out Of Home Care

Act no. 142/2015 highlights the importance of children out-of-home being placed in a family context. However, foster care continues to be an almost absent component in the Portuguese childcare system. In 2017, it corresponded to just 3% of out-of-home care. This research aims to contribute to the understanding of the reasons for becoming a foster family. It adopted a qualitative approach, using carers’ narrative interviews and practitioners semi-structured interviews, inspired by grounded theory. Foster family motivation is rooted in altruism, affection for children and sensitivity to maltreatment. These factors, as well as personal life course and contact with out-of-home care, induce a predisposition to become a foster family. The quality of the support services and the care professionals’ performance also reveal key elements.

Doing participation

2020 ◽  
pp. 87-110
Author(s):  
Katrin Križ
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foster Care ◽  
Support Services ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Total Sample ◽  
Everyday Practice ◽  
Home Support ◽  
Participation In Decision Making ◽  
Study Participants

This chapter analyses when and how child protection caseworkers reported doing participation in their everyday practice. The term 'doing participation' refers to the range of possible participation, from minimal participation by listening to a child's opinions and reflections without taking them into consideration to promoting genuine participation in decision-making. The chapter examines to what degree the study participants facilitated genuine participation, defined as children's opinions being heard and weighed in decision-making. The study participants discussed included the removal of children from home, support services, foster care placements, and children's contact with their parent(s) while in care. There are three ways in which the study participants reported doing participation: giving information, facilitating participation, and gathering information. Almost half of the total sample reported facilitating children's genuine participation.

The Value of External Support Services when Children Transition into Foster Care: An Example of a Volunteering Project

2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 367-371
Author(s):  
Michael Nycyk ◽  
John Rigsby-Jones ◽  
Margaret Redsell
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Support Services ◽  
Emergency Situation ◽  
Support Service ◽  
External Support ◽  
Substantial Part ◽  
Sense Of Ownership ◽  
Lessons Learnt ◽  
Care Project ◽  
Outcomes For Children

When children are removed from their homes in an emergency situation they leave behind some or all of those familiar items they consider their own. The loss of this sense of ownership, combined with the shock of moving to an unfamiliar foster environment, can leave them afraid, traumatised and emotionally scarred. A group of volunteers addressed this by forming the Love and Care project in Brisbane, Australia. The aim of this project is to provide kits to children from birth to 17 years of age upon them being placed in foster care. These care kits, containing clothing, school supplies, toys and other items, fill a need for the children to have something they can hold on to and call their own. This paper demonstrates the value of an external support service that can play a substantial part in maximising better outcomes for children transitioning into foster care. It aims to describe the structure and practices of Love and Care and, from the lessons learnt through observation of the project practices that created and sustained it, to make recommendations. It also briefly addresses the importance of including external services in the evaluation and research of foster children's outcomes.

scholarly journals Centering the Complexity of Long-Term Unemployment: Lessons Learned from a Critical Occupational Science Inquiry

Societies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
Rebecca M. Aldrich ◽  
Debbie Laliberte Rudman ◽  
Na Eon (Esther) Park ◽  
Suzanne Huot
Keyword(s):  
Support Services ◽  
Science Inquiry ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Occupational Science ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Employment Support ◽  
Time Diaries ◽  
Discursive Constructions

Inquiries that rely on temporal framings to demarcate long-term unemployment risk generating partial understandings and grounding unrealistic policy solutions. In contrast, this four-phase two-context study aimed to generate complex understandings of post-recession long-term unemployment in North America. Grounded in a critical occupational perspective, this collaborative ethnographic study also drew on street-level bureaucracy and governmentality perspectives to understand how social policies and discursive constructions shaped people’s everyday ‘doing’ within the arena of long-term unemployment. Across three phases, study methods included interviews with 15 organizational stakeholders who oversaw employment support services; interviews, participant observations, and focus groups with 18 people who provided front-line employment support services; and interviews, participant observations, time diaries, and occupational mapping with 23 people who self-identified as being long-term unemployed. We draw on selected interviews and mapping data to illustrate how participants’ definitions and experiences of long-term unemployment reflected and moved beyond dominant temporally based framings. These findings reinforce the need to expand the dominant conceptualizations of long-term unemployment that shape scholarly inquiries and policy responses. Reflections on the benefits and challenges of this study’s design also reinforce the need to use multiple, flexible methods to center the complexity of long-term unemployment as it is experienced in everyday life.

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