Locating Foster Care: Place and Space in Care Leavers’ Childhood Memories

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nell Musgrove
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Childhood Memories ◽  
Place And Space ◽  
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.

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

Project MIRRA: Memory - Identity - Rights in Records - Access

Comma ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2020 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 97-110
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Shepherd ◽  
Victoria Hoyle ◽  
Elizabeth Lomas
Keyword(s):  
Response Times ◽  
Voluntary Organizations ◽  
Childhood Memories ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Care Leavers ◽  
University College London ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Records Access

Many people who grew up in care have gaps in their childhood memories and unanswered questions about their early lives. In the absence of family photos and stories they turn to records held by the local authorities and charities that looked after them. Accessing these records is a practically and emotionally challenging process. Response times are often long and the records received are redacted because they include confidential information about “third parties’” who are often family and carers. The language and ideas contained reflect the prejudices and assumptions of previous times. Some files are extremely long and confusing, whereas others only have a few pages to cover a whole childhood. Records may have been lost or destroyed altogether. Very few services are available to support people through the experience. MIRRA: Memory-Identity-Rights in Records-Access is a participatory action research project carried out at the Department of Information Studies at University College London since 2017 that explores these issues. It considered how child social care records have been created, kept and used in public and voluntary organizations in England from 1970 to the present. The research is co-produced with care leavers in partnership with The Care Leavers’ Association and reflects on how what it is recorded about a childhood can affect the individual concerned throughout their life. This article republishes edited blog posts produced during the research project. The original blogs in full are available at https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/mirra/.

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