This introduction to social work with children and young people who are looked after (in care or accommodated) by statutory or voluntary agencies is the only textbook on the subject which addresses this area of work across all four nations of the UK.Providing a clear theoretical and ethical basis, it introduces and develops a set of core themes, reflective of contemporary developments including: • the influence of, and tensions between, dominant discourses that shape the social work service (relationship-based practice, early intervention and prevention, social innovation, evidence-based practice and outcomes) • the use and abuse of concepts of 'children's needs' and 'best interests'; • ideas of parenting and parental responsibility, and the relationships between children, families, communities and the state; • the importance of recognising that children and young people have rights and considering their views; • trauma, trauma-informed practice, transitions and resilience. With chapters addressing a sequence of topics – assessment and planning, residential and foster care, leaving care, and permanence – there is a specific focus on working with disabled children, children from minority ethnic communities, and marginalised groups of children and young people including refugees and asylum seekers, LGBTQIA+ children and those who have been trafficked. Packed full of useful pedagogical features including material on the legal and policy context, summaries of research evidence, notes for good practice, group teaching exercises, references to legislation and guidance, and guides to further reading, it will be core reading on any child and family care modules, general preparation for practice courses, Frontline, Step Up, as well as for all social work practitioners.

The emergence of the 'child-safe' organization requires close attention to practices that contribute to children's wellbeing and safety. Based on data collected in schools, residential care and disability services, this article argues for a more nuanced understanding of the ethical frameworks informing practice in these settings. Findings suggest both young people and adults predominantly describe ethical practice in terms of intersubjective relations. This ethical relationality is understood, less in terms of vertical responsibilities of care (largely the domain of adults and shaped by institutional norms), and more in terms of vertical and horizontal (interpersonal) relations, giving way to more empowered inclusion.

A handbook that provides an overview of contemporary theory and practice around children's participation.

This paper offers a critical reflexive perspective on a Participatory Action Research project with young people at a site of 'advanced urban marginality' (Wacquant, 2008). Its purpose is to explore the ways in which habitus based inequalities in the research field (Bourdieu, 1977) contributed to a parallel process of marginalisation and exclusion in the act of participating. More specifically, we examine how a particular professional academic research identity and taxonomy of participatory social research, animated by a benign intent, nonetheless exerted an ideological form of control over the enquiry, administering and recycling feelings of failure and marginalisation among participants - including the 'professional' researcher. To draw out the different ways this control took form, our analysis centres on a particular exchange within the group concerned with the distribution of a one-off financial stipend to participants. We endeavour to draw some conceptual insights in our exploration of this exchange, and in conclusion offer some ideas for a 'good enough' practice of action research undertaken in comparable socio-economic and psycho-cultural conditions.

Recent years have seen increased attention paid to both student participation and wellbeing at school. Little research to date has investigated the extent to which participation is associated with wellbeing, let alone which specific elements of participation may predict wellbeing. This paper reports the quantitative phase of a mixed-methods study investigating these associations. Students (N = 1,435) from Government and Catholic high schools in New South Wales, Australia, completed an online survey. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that having a say with influential people, having choice, having influence, and working together significantly and positively predicted wellbeing. Simply having 'voice' did not significantly predict wellbeing. Mediation analyses showed that student participation fostered recognition - giving and receiving care, respect and valuing others - which in turn fostered wellbeing. The results suggest schools endeavouring to strengthen student wellbeing would benefit from identifying whether and how participation initiatives create the conditions for recognition to occur.

Children's right to participate, at least in rhetoric, is well recognised, but what this means and the associated benefits in schools are less clear. This article synthesises findings of a large mixed-methods Australian study comprising policy analysis, qualitative interviews with students, teachers and policymakers, and the development of a Student Participation Scale, which was then used in a student survey to explore associations between participation and wellbeing. The study found that particular elements of participation (choice, influence and working together - but not 'voice') were strongly associated with greater wellbeing, both as a direct link and one mediated by intersubjective 'recognition' (relationships founded on reciprocal respect, valuing and care of others). The findings have considerable implications for both policy and practice in clarifying how participation is understood, practised and progressed in different 'spaces' in schools, as well as identifying the cultural conditions necessary for simultaneously fostering both participation and wellbeing.

There is a growing recognition that participation in ‘shadow’ structures such as youth councils, forums and parliaments does not meet all of young people’s needs for action and engagement, and a growing emphasis on finding and recognising opportunities for young people to move out of these structures and initiate their own forms of democratic action for change. This chapter, co-written by academics and young researchers recruited from a youth council, tells the story of an action research project set up under the auspices of PARTISPACE which aimed to learn about the dynamics of self-initiated and autonomous youth participation beyond the confines of formalised youth participation structures. In this chapter, the authors explain what we all brought to the project, reflect from different perspectives on the process we went through, the challenges we encountered, the outcomes we achieved, and make sense of what we, collectively and individually, learned from the experience about different processes of participation.

Recent articles by Kim and Hammersley have critiqued, respectively: the methodological and normative assumptions that underlie research ‘by’ children; claims made about the implications of children’s rights for the ethics of research with children; and more broadly, some of the central commitments of Childhood Studies. This paper offers a response to these critiques, seeking to distinguish between those that clearly should be accepted, those that appear to be based on a misreading of the claims being made by scholars and researchers, and those that represent serious challenges to defend, redefine or rethink our aims, claims or practices.

Child safety is now a national policy priority in Australia. Extensive enquiries and reviews have escalated legislative and policy responses focused on developing, maintaining and monitoring "child safe" organisations. The recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse point to the importance of cultural conditions within organisations in supporting child safety and the need for responsive change in some organisations. Drawing on a recent policy analysis, undertaken as part of a larger Australian Research Council Discovery Project, this article examines how children and safety are constructed, within and across relevant state and federal government policies in Australia, and the implications of this. Distinctions are drawn between conceptualisations of children within the broader education policy context and two specific policy contexts in which children are considered particularly vulnerable to abuse - out-of-home care and disability. The findings indicate that policy discourses of "child safe" potentially foster different emphases and approaches in organisations. These have implications for the way children are positioned in relation to their safety, how their rights are recognised and implemented, and what is required to foster cultural conditions within organisations to best support children's safety and wellbeing.

Keeping children safe from harm is a national policy priority in Australia. Extensive inquiries and reviews have highlighted institutions' persistent failures to respond ethically and appropriately to child abuse and its life-long impacts on survivors. Policy efforts now reflect considerable emphasis on safeguarding children, including through the development of 'child safe' organisations. The realisation of these policy aspirations requires close attention to how 'child safe' is conceptualised and operationalised in different organisational contexts. Drawing on an analysis of policy in Australia and other international jurisdictions, namely New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Ireland, this article engages critically with the notion of 'child safe' in policy, to explore who is to be safe, from what and how, in organisational settings. The findings suggest emergent discourses of 'child safe' are bound up with particular constructions of both children and safety, reflect current social and political understandings and agendas, and have implications for organisations' approaches to safety. Ensuring the safety of children in Australia and other jurisdictions requires continuing scrutiny of policy implementation to make sure current policy efforts are not reduced to compliance-based imperatives that protect organisations, but fail to create the cultural conditions that enhance children's wellbeing and safety.

ABSTRACT Drawing on the PARTISPACE research (www.partispace.eu) and particularly on findings from three of eight European cities included in the study, this article brings to the surface the dramatic and theatrical practices underlying the metaphor of performance in order to contribute to a better understanding of youth work and youth participation. It considers the spaces, temporalities, actors and audiences, and atmospheres of youth participation projects. Youth workers and young people in these space/times can be seen as actors in the drama of participation; cast in their roles and caught up in power play, both small scale and sometimes on a larger political stage. The micropolitics of group inclusions and exclusions which are pushed beyond the boundary in Youth Council spaces take centre stage in the drama of the Youth Club. Attention to ambivalence in the work of youth workers leads to a discussion of the needs of such pedagogues.

Children & SocietyVolume 33, Issue 4 p. 324-332 Original Article What is the Point of Studying Childhood as a Social Phenomenon? Nigel Thomas, Corresponding Author Nigel Thomas npthomas@uclan.ac.uk orcid.org/0000-0002-5310-9144 School of Social Work, Care and Community, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UKCorrespondence to: Nigel Thomas, School of Social Work, Care and Community, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK. E-mail: npthomas@uclan.ac.ukSearch for more papers by this author Nigel Thomas, Corresponding Author Nigel Thomas npthomas@uclan.ac.uk orcid.org/0000-0002-5310-9144 School of Social Work, Care and Community, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UKCorrespondence to: Nigel Thomas, School of Social Work, Care and Community, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK. E-mail: npthomas@uclan.ac.ukSearch for more papers by this author First published: 01 February 2019 https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12297Citations: 6Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume33, Issue4Themed Issue: The Future of Childhood StudiesJuly 2019Pages 324-332 RelatedInformation

Purpose The research reported here forms part of a study of children’s participation in children in care reviews and decision making in one local authority in England. The purpose of this paper is to outline the views of 11 social workers and 8 Independent Reviewing Officers (IROs) and explores their perceptions of children’s participation in reviews. The paper considers the barriers to young people participating meaningfully in decision making and how practice could be improved in this vital area so that children’s voices are more clearly heard and when possible acted upon by professionals. Design/methodology/approach The data reported here derive from a qualitative cross-sectional study in one English local authority. The entire study involved interviewing children in care, IROs, social workers and senior managers about young people’s participation in their reviews. Findings from the interviews with young people and senior managers have been reported elsewhere (Diaz and Aylward, 2018; Diaz et al., 2018); this paper focusses on the interviews with social workers and IROs. Specifically, the authors were interested in gaining insight into their views about the following research questions: To what degree do children and young people meaningfully participate in reviews? What are the barriers to participation? What can be done to improve children and young people’s participation in reviews? Findings During this process seven themes were identified, five of which concerned barriers to effective participation and two which concerned factors that appeared to support effective participation. These are summarised below and explained further in the following sections. Barriers to effective participation: social workers and IROs’ high caseloads and ensuing time pressures; high turnover of social workers and inexperienced staff; lack of understanding and training of professionals in participation; children and young people’s negative experiences of reviews and consequent reticence in taking part; and structure and process of the review not being child-centred. Factors which assist participation: quality of the relationship between the child and professionals; and the child or young person chairing their own review meeting. Research limitations/implications Although these findings reflect practice in one local authority, their consistency with other research in this area suggests that they are applicable more widely. Practical implications The practice of children chairing their own reviews was pioneered by The Children’s Society in North West England in the 1990s (Welsby, 1996), and has more recently been implemented with some success by IROs in Gloucestershire (see Thomas, 2015, p. 47). A key recommendation from this study would be for research to explore how this practice could be developed and embedded more widely. Previous research has noted the tension between the review being viewed as an administrative process and as a vehicle of participation (Pert et al., 2014). This study highlighted practitioner reservations about young people chairing their own reviews, but it also gave examples of how this had been done successfully and how it could improve children’s participation in decision making. At the very least, it is essential that young people play a role in deciding where the review is going to take place, when it will take place, who is going to be invited and what will be included on the agenda. Social implications The paper highlights that in this Local Authority caseloads for social workers were very high and this, combined with a high turnover of staff and an inexperienced workforce, meant that children in care struggled to have a consistent social worker. This often meant that young people were not able to build up a positive working relationship with their social worker, which negatively impacted on their ability to play a meaningful role in decision making. Originality/value There have been very few recent studies that have considered professionals’ perspectives of children’s participation in key meetings and decision making, so that this provides a timely and worthwhile contribution to this important area of work.

This paper reflects on our experiences of using participatory action research (PAR) with young people as part of an EU H2020 project exploring the spaces and styles of youth participation in formal, nonformal and informal settings. The paper outlines key tenets of action research and provides a brief review of the literature concerning the use of PAR in youth research. Drawing on three case studies, we provide an honest account of some of the messy realities involved in realising the promise of participatory action research in practice. The central focus is on how the action research played out in practice, the challenges of undertaking PAR within the context of a funded project with predefined deliverables, the power relationships between researchers and young people and how agendas are negotiated in action research. We conclude with some critical reflections on lessons learnt, highlighting the importance of acknowledging the exploratory nature of PAR and the critical role of the researcher as facilitator.

This paper draws upon learning from three action research projects conducted as part of a Europe-wide project exploring young people's social and political participation. Challenging dominant discourses about what counts' as participation and what does not, the paper explores how, through the action research projects, young people engaged in knowledge democracy in new democratic arenas'. Building upon experiential knowing and creating knowledge and learning through practice, the young people explored their own democratic knowledge production, communication and engagement within a context of shifting discourses of participation, democratic engagement and active citizenship. The increasing preference of young people for more informal forms of participation as lived practice reflects a shift to young people constructing their own modes of participation and remaking democracy' in their own vision and according to their own needs. By working outside of the confines of normative assumptions of democratic practice and participation, young people exercised their own political' agency in response to their own priorities, interests and concerns and, in doing so, illustrated that new forms, understandings and practices of knowledge democracy can emerge that reflect the promise of inclusive democratic societies more meaningfully.