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This paper draws on a British Academy (BA) funded study exploring social workers' conceptions of family using a vignette and focus groups. The policy context is discussed and the data from the BA study are then compared and contrasted with families' accounts of their own situations using the data from a separate qualitative study about child protection social work. The paper discusses the themes emerging and argues for a renewed focus on theorizing family in children's social work and the implications for practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents data from a qualitative case study of a family support service, support care. As a time‐limited service that aims to enable positive change within families and involves children and parents spending time apart, aspects of time feature prominently in understandings and experiences of the service. This paper uses the concept of time as a lens to explore some of the organizing principles and underlying assumptions of this service. Eighty‐two qualitative interviews and 22 participant observation sessions were undertaken with stakeholders engaged in support care. This paper examines the variety of ways in which time was understood and experienced over the course of the research. This includes a conceptualization of time as a resource, together with the hopes, expectations and concerns attached to the time provision. It is argued that the service‐specific questions regarding how much time to afford families, and the purpose of support have wider relevance within social work policy and practice. This includes debates about how best to respond to families with support needs, including those with enduring needs, how to manage tensions in respect of balancing need while seeking to avoid dependency and the sometimes competing nature of support and protection objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about how children themselves understand their moves to and between foster homes. The data presented in this paper come from a study that sought children's views on becoming and being a foster child. A key finding of that study was how children's accounts of being fostered illustrated a high level of anxiety and concern about their moving to live with a foster family. This paper firstly explores the key issues about looked‐after children's moves. It then describes the research study undertaken, before exploring the data generated from children's accounts of their moves to a new foster home. Lastly, there is a discussion of the implications for social work practice in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor outcomes for young people in and leaving care have been well documented and research has indicated that the expectations of professionals working with children and young people looked after is a significant influence, particularly in relation to education. An evaluation of an independent children's residential school in Scotland provided a rare opportunity to analyse and compare the views of different kinds of staff about desirable outcomes and how successful outcomes could be achieved. Care workers, teachers and specialist support staff shared some views, but also held contrasting expectations, which appeared to be linked to differing emphases in their models for working with young people. This paper offers tentative explanations for such differences and concludes with suggestions on how to help align service staffs' expectations of young people leaving their care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teenage pregnancy is associated with adverse health and social outcomes, even after adjusting for prior disadvantage, and is recognized as a major public health issue. Rates of teenage pregnancy in the UK are among the highest in Europe. Interventions introduced in the past decade to address the problem, such as improved sex and relationships education in schools, have been accompanied by a fall in teenage pregnancy rates in the UK. However, this decline has not been mirrored among looked‐after children. In this paper, we discuss why this may be the case. We suggest that a system of peer mentoring, involving a young person, whose experience of life post‐care has been positive, may be an effective approach to tackling the problem of pregnancy in this group. Peer mentoring has the potential to assist young people in developing self‐esteem, confidence and in making choices regarding their education, personal development and relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a driving force within current UK child welfare policies which promotes a strengths led approach to both assessment and care planning for children in need. Social policy emphasizes the importance of tangible outcomes such as education achievement, which have been enshrined in statute. However, other developmental outcomes, such as identity, are subordinated. Notwithstanding the relevance of these more concrete indicators, this paper suggests that this focus has left a gap at theoretical, strategic and operational levels relating to more psychosocial aspects of human growth and development, such as identity. This paper seeks to redress that gap by considering identity as both a process and an outcome. Following a review of the literature on identity development, it presents an analysis of semi-structured interviews with 13 young people and their social workers. The findings show how young people's identity is shaped by their relationships, can be a protective mechanism, and deferred or put on standby. In the concluding discussion the implications for social work practice are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper considers social and personal/individual approaches to researching identities of adolescents with severe learning disabilities; suggesting that vital components of emotionality and relatedness are largely missing from research and consequently from literature informing social care professionals. This leaves untapped, rich information and communication resources for research which may improve understandings of the experiences of a socially excluded group of young people. A psychosocial view of adolescent identity development, 'subjectivation', offers a way forward and a case study on 'Billy', drawn from a 'practice-near' observational study, helps to illustrate this. Observation allows the researcher to be sensitive to the subtle ways in which identities of young people with severe learning disabilities are constructed, often with a sense of fragility and uncertainty. Continuities of experience between the young people and the rest of the adolescent community may be seen, but also the impact of living with impairment can be thought about in relation to the particular psychosocial circumstances of each young person. Knowledge of these processes enhances social work practice by encouraging workers to be sensitive to, and healthily curious about, the multiple ways in which identities of young people with severe learning disabilities are shaped in relationship with those around them and the wider social field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]