‘It's so much better than contact’: A qualitative study exploring children and young people's experiences of a sibling camp in the United Kingdom

This article explores children and young people's experiences of a sibling camp based in the United Kingdom. Sibling camps are an intervention based on children's activity holidays that aim to promote meaningful contact for siblings separated in public care. This study adopted a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews with 11 children and young people; this included one sibling group of three and four sibling groups of two. The children's ages ranged from 8 to 17 years old, and they had all attended at least one camp with their sibling. Findings highlighted how the children valued the extended time they could spend with their siblings at camp, and how they felt this enabled them to better understand their siblings and improve their relationships. Findings also showed how the children developed close supportive relationships with the staff at the camps, who ensured they were cared for, and they also supported them with managing their relationships, which some participants acknowledged at times could be challenging. The participants also valued spending time with other sibling groups who also experienced separation. The study found camps provided a space for these children to maintain links with their siblings and to strengthen their sibling bonds

The work of creating a family life: Foster carers and Labour Law

Foster carers’ recent unionisation and their campaign to be recognised as workers in the UK, will provide the basis to interrogate the public/private divide in this paper. I will argue that the rejection of foster carers’ claims that they are workers by English and EU courts, as well as by the previous Conservative Government, have problematically relied on traditional conceptions of care work belonging in the private sphere. This highlights the pervasiveness of the public/private divide, which is still thought to separate the work of family life, from ‘proper’ work, performed by those with a job. This paper will draw on the ethic of care to show that all caring labour is work, and could be protected by labour law. Even if the breadth of labour law is unchanged, foster carers’ work clearly straddles both spheres, so they should be protected

Social Pedagogy: Developing and Maintaining Multi-Disciplinary Relationships in Residential Child Care

The task of building and maintaining effective multi-disciplinary relationships is a constant challenge for the residential child care sector in Scotland. The absence of effective multi-disciplinary collaboration has been cited regularly as a contributing factor to instances of poor and problematic practice. Social pedagogy has much to offer in terms of enabling the residential child care sector to address some of these issues and assist with the task of establishing effective multi-disciplinary relationships. This article will explore how this can be achieved in practice, drawing on research based on multi-disciplinary social pedagogy training delivered in Scotland. The evidence demonstrates that social pedagogy can begin to break down the very real barriers that often prevent residential child care practitioners from developing and maintaining multi-disciplinary relationships. It can assist with the task of developing a shared language and understanding; the creation of a clear focus on the developmental needs of children and young people; and a more nuanced approach to dealing with issues of risk. The messages from this article will hold relevance for the professions of residential child care, health and education and be applicable to practitioners throughout Europe and beyond

‘Just listen’: Care-experienced young people’s views of the child protection system in Wales

The Fostering Network was asked to support the Welsh Government’s stakeholder engagement process as part of the review of the 2008 All Wales Child Protection Procedures. Care leavers were identified as a key stakeholder group whose views and ideas needed to be gathered as part of the work to review child protection processes in Wales. This is a report of the findings of the focus group consultation and a one-to-one interview which were conducted to explore young people’s experiences of the child protection system in Wales. A content analysis of the qualitative information was conducted and the main themes have been drawn out and illustrated by direct quotation when possible. The consultation was conducted through the collaboration of The Fostering Network and Cardiff University. A total of nine care-experienced young people were involved in the process, which took place during September and October 2018

Safe caring

Includes bibliographical references. Title from coverAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:m03/27119 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

‘Just listen’: Care-experienced young people’s views of the child protection system in Wales

The Fostering Network was asked to support the Welsh Government’s stakeholder engagement process as part of the review of the 2008 All Wales Child Protection Procedures. Care leavers were identified as a key stakeholder group whose views and ideas needed to be gathered as part of the work to review child protection processes in Wales. This is a report of the findings of the focus group consultation and a one-to-one interview which were conducted to explore young people’s experiences of the child protection system in Wales. A content analysis of the qualitative information was conducted and the main themes have been drawn out and illustrated by direct quotation when possible. The consultation was conducted through the collaboration of The Fostering Network and Cardiff University. A total of nine care-experienced young people were involved in the process, which took place during September and October 2018

Preparation for adult life

Includes bibliographical references. Title from coverAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:m03/27118 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo