Traditionally dogs and other pets in foster homes have tended to be been seen negatively; requiring a risk assessment in relation to potential bites or associated with diseases linked to poor hygiene.  More recently this has has changed and researchers are increasingly recognising the benefits th...

'A substance misusing mother is definitely a bad mother!' Many times in my work as a medical doctor working with substance-misusing women I come across this perception both from the mothers themselves as well as from the professionals. This presentation will discuss whether substance misuse in its...

The Views of Psychotherapies project seeks to evoke, represent and understand children’s perspectives of their engagement in psychotherapy interventions in residential out of home care in Malta.  This paper presents and problematizes the initial, emergent data from a thematic analysis of around 3...

Kinship care refers to the care provided by relatives or close members of the child’s social network when the child is unable to live at home with their parents and is the preferred placement option within the Australian child protection system. Of the 43,399 children in out of home care in Austra...

Child and youth participation is a key principle enshrined in the UN CRC – a right guaranteed to children as human beings (rather than becomings) in their own right. Notwithstanding, it is a valuable endeavour in and of itself, which makes good sense in developing structures and mechanisms for chi...

As a profession we are familiar with the concept of ‘holistic’ care for children. But this concept often does not take account of aspects relating to interaction with a natural environment. Many studies have emerged on the health benefits nature gives us, for example: o   Spending enough t...

Training should be provided to all carers on the rights of children without parental care and on the specific vulnerability of children, in particularly difficult situations, such as emergency placements or placements outside their area of habitual residence. (Art. 15, UN Guidelines for the Alternat...

Today, both, children`s studies as well as practice of child substitute care, is changing as understanding and expectations about children's competence, agency and participation in society is changing. In this presentation, the focus is on children who are living in a substitute care, more precisely...

“Supporting the educational needs of children and young people in foster care” Supervising social workers support the care of the placement but our children and young people spend half their time in school, five days a week, battling to overcome the obstacles they face in addition to those of t...

Deinstitutionalisation and child protection and care reform remain key priorities at European level and are emerging as a growing global movement. Deinstitutionalisation continues to present professionals and decision makers significant challenges. Broadly, we continue to debate its meaning and we s...

10,000 young people in England and Wales leave state care every year. Each has a Pathway Plan, but many young people find that these are paper-based, agency-driven, tick-box exercises which do not support them to transition to adulthood successfully. Alongside, there is limited data collected around...

We have found it useful, when considering the Banya Therapeutic Model based on Pellin, to ask 3 questions. The answers presented here are short indicative summaries: 1. What is a Therapeutic Model? A Therapeutic Model provides a framework with which people can gain insight and apply this new ins...

Educational outcomes for foster youth and careleavers are dismal. In the United States, research has cumulatively shown that foster youth/careleavers are more likely to experience multiple school settings, attend poorer quality schools, and less likely to be involved in extracurricular school activi...

India has the largest child population in the world with over 430 million children.  Of these, it is estimated that 170 million are in need of care and protection in some way. The concepts of de-institutionalisation and child protection care system reform are something the Indian government and civ...

Trauma in infancy from a variety of sources, including parental abuse, neglectful or inconsistent caregiving, and life-threatening experiences can have long-lasting effects after the child has been placed with a nurturing foster care or adoptive family.   Psychotherapy with infants, toddlers, and ...

Adoption from foster care is historically rare in Ireland due to the principle ‘protection of children based in marriage’ and the relative lack of the voice of the child in the Irish Constitution. In 2012, however, a Constitutional Referendum on children’s rights led the way for the enactment ...

One overall topic in the research on young people leaving care is the question how they manage to get along in heterogeneous social situations and in regards to sometimes paradoxical and affording environments. The idea of creating belongings and safe spaces is in this context seldom referred to. Ac...

Overview: Every youth that has encountered the foster care system has had experiences that they feel are unique to them. The shame, confusion and complexity of the relationships in their lives are distinct to them but can very familiar and comforting to their peers and informative for the adults an...

Background: Health professionals fulfil an essential role within the multiagency response to safeguarding concerns. This study aimed to explore the experiences, attitudes and perceptions of paediatricians relating to Child Protection (CP) work in a country characterised by the absence of mandatory...

Children in need of protection are often placed into unrelated foster care and uprooted from all that is familiar and important to their sense of well-being and social identity. The placement experience leaves the child with a sense of denial concerning how difficult life and divided loyalties betwe...

The present study aimed to investigate the need satisfaction of the foster families. The study employed a descriptive and cross-sectional design. The population of the study was comprised of foster families residing throughout Turkey. The participants were reached out via snowball method. The data w...

  Ongoing support is one of the most important concerns for individuals who consider becoming a foster carer. We consider this to be a major factor when recruiting carers and importantly retaining them. It has made the difference to continued placement stability for some of the most vulnerable c...

The presentation discusses a major child welfare reform which is undergoing now in Russia. Following a long period of nation-wide, system-level policy inaction, activist campaigning and international criticism, the Russian government is now radically reforming the care system for children in substit...

  We live in a multicultural world. Many children find themselves between different cultures: ·       because their parents don’t belong to the same cultural group ·       because they are fostered or adopted by people belonging to another culture ·       because their pa...

The Multi-disciplinary Assessment and Participation of Children in Child Protection Proceedings project aims to support professionals to better involve parents and children in cases of neglect, emotional abuse. The MAPChIPP project supported by the REC program of the EU conducted in 8 countries (Est...

A number of researches have been conducted but with attention focused essentially on foster placement success using ex-foster children as a measuring rod. Most of such studies which include former foster children usually collect factual (usually quantitative) data to evaluate their pathways or achi...

 Socio-cultural Landscape and Foster Care in India Zubair Meenai[1] Indian society is tremendously multifaceted and complex.  There are multiple ethnic, regional, economic, religious and caste groups across the Indian nation that is also infused with inter-sectionality of gender, rural-urban a...

India is home to around 31mn out of home care children (OHC) (separated from birth families or at-risk of separation). Most land up in institutional care due to lack of functional family or community-based care systems. Most of them have negative experiences of neglect, trauma, abandonment, abuse, d...

One of the most “popular” reasons when the caregivers apply to the specialists is “we don’t hear each other”, “he destroys everything around and becomes more and more awful every month” and so on. What to do? How not to become a victim of these destructions? What is possible to do to...

Children’s rights are everyone’s concern, but are especially relevant for professionals working for and with children on a daily basis. Strong youth participation components in the development and delivery of training programmes on the rights of the child is a very effective method applied in F...