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Research highlights the role of key actors and relationships in supporting the educational attainment and progress of children in care and care leavers. We know less about how relationships influence the educational journeys of people with care experience over time and how to support the educational progress and engagement of adults with care experience. The principle of "linked lives" is central to the life course perspective referring to the interdependence of human lives throughout the life course. This paper explores how the principle of linked lives can illuminate our understanding of how relationships positively influence the educational journeys of adults with care experience over time. Educational life history interviews were conducted with 18 care‐experienced adults (aged 24–36) in Ireland. Findings suggest that the principle of linked lives is a valuable conceptual tool for providing new insights on this issue. Four key themes were identified: (a) opportunities for educational support are present across the life course; (b) "family" is a central source of educational support; (c) there is intergenerational capacity for educational support; and (d) relationships beyond the "family" are supportive of education. Implications for practice, policy, and research are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there has been considerable policy attention given to educational disadvantage in the Irish context in recent years, evidence on the educational experiences, attainment, and progression of young people with experience of living in alternative care settings (e.g. foster care, residential care) remains limited. International literature suggests that young people with such 'care-experience' typically have lower attainment and progress to higher education at lower rates than their majority population peers. This brief paper focuses on one of these issues, the question of how care-experienced young people in Ireland fare in accessing opportunities in higher education. It presents some very preliminary evidence from an initial analysis of a small dataset related to care-experienced applicants to the Higher Education Access Route (HEAR) programme, a higher education access scheme that offers places on a reduced-points basis to school leavers under the age of 23 from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. The findings highlight a number of features of the experience of this group in accessing higher education. In our conclusion, we argue that there is an urgent need to collect, and draw on, data related to the educational attainment and progress of both children in care and those who have left care in Ireland, in order to effectively inform policy and practice, and to demonstrate a commitment to understanding and addressing this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this component of a preliminary cross-national study (Ireland and Catalonia) of care leavers' experience in the world of work is to explore how carers may influence the entry of young people in care into the world of work and how they may also influence the young people's progress in that world. A total of 22 care leavers, aged 23-33 years, were recruited on the basis of their having substantial employment experience since leaving care. Evidence from the interviews reveals the importance of the role of carers in the work-related progression of the young care leavers, especially in relation to gaining work experience while they were still in care. The qualitative analysis shows that carers were influential in promoting (and sometimes hindering) progress in work and education. Carers were often reported to play an important role in opening up opportunities, giving support (modelling skill development, giving practical help, etc.), being role models and cultivating the young person's agency. On the basis of these findings, we propose an initial conceptualization of carer roles in positive work support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the consensus statement on therapeutic residential care developed jointly by an international consortium of experts on residential care. It highlights the efforts of British Prime Minister David Cameron in reviewing the role and purpose of residential placements within the wider child welfare system. Information about the working definition of therapeutic residential care is also offered.

• (Mis)recognition experiences affect levels of trust and engagement between young people and those working with them. • Efforts by young asylum-seekers to negotiate experiences of misrecognition require to be better understood and appreciated. • Misrecognition is an important driver of young people's behavior. • Responding to misrecognition in a transgressive manner may be a meaningful way of developing agency and positive identities. Theories of recognition have received increasing attention in studies of children, young people and social care. However, the concept of misrecognition, as the opposite of recognition, is less featured. This article studies the experiences of misrecognition using evidence from the lived experience of underaged unaccompanied asylum-seeking boys in Finland. Drawing from conceptualizations of (mis)recognition and qualitative data created with 18 unaccompanied asylum-seeking boys living in residential care, we firstly look at how the boys articulate their experience of being seen as 'refugees'. Secondly, we study how they respond to the refugee label. The findings show that the refugee stigma is mainly experienced as misrecognition, which influences the ways the young asylum-seekers strive to construct agentic identities. Four ways of responding to this misrecognition are identified: adopting a diminished identity (resigning), standing up against misrecognition (resisting), acting to prove the prejudice they encounter wrong (conforming), and claiming ordinariness (performing). We argue that the misrecognition experiences of unaccompanied asylum seeking minors offer a valuable lens for deepening our understanding of young people's responses to adverse conditions. Their varying responses to misrecognition provide important insights into how social work and the care system can be more attentive to the experiences of marginalized children and young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low educational attainment of young people in care and leaving care has been well-established in a continually-growing body of international research. Existing research has identified some of the pathways taken by care leavers into further and higher education in the years after leaving care (i.e. ages 18–24), particularly among 'high achieving' care leavers. We know less however, about the longer-term pathways taken through education from the perspective of 'older' adults with care experience (i.e. those aged 25 and over). Guided by the life course principle of expected 'diversity in life course trajectories' this paper identifies the pathways taken through education among 18 care-experienced adults (aged 24–36) in Ireland and some of the experiences and events that influenced these pathways. We outline four types of educational pathway taken by participants: 1) The Typical Pathway; 2) The Typical Pathway 'Plus'; 3) The Short-term Disrupted Pathway; and 4) The Long-term Disrupted Pathway. Study findings illustrate the diversity of educational pathways that may be taken by adults with care experience and the importance of considering the impact of multiple roles and transitions on these pathways. The value of taking a longer-term view when exploring educational pathways is also highlighted in this paper. Implications for practice, policy, and future research are discussed. • Qualitative study of educational pathways of care-experienced adults • Guided by life course principle of expected 'diversity in life course trajectories' • Diverse educational pathways identified including 'typical and 'disrupted' pathways • Multiple roles and transitions impact the educational pathways taken by participants [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The concept and aspects of extended care are widely adopted internationally. • Extended care is conceptualised in diverse ways by different countries. • Extended care is implemented in diverse ways by different countries. • Extended care is not clearly differentiated from aftercare. • There is a very limited research on the value of extended care across countries. Young people who are taken up into the care system (including foster, formal kinship and residential or group care) traditionally have to leave care at age 18, the generally accepted age of adulthood. Research globally has shown that most youth are not ready to transition to independent living at 18 and require additional support into early adulthood. One specific type of support that has gained increasing interest is extended care arrangements, including permitting young people to remain in their care placements beyond the age of 18. While widely discussed, there is a limited body of literature on the conceptualisation, implementation and evaluation of extended care, and almost no cross-national dialogue on extended care. This article aims to gather together a range of experiences on extended care and to explore the extent to which there is a cross-national consensus on the conceptualisation and operationalisation of extended care. Ten countries participated in the study, reviewing their country's extended care policy, practice and research using a common matrix. Findings reveal adoption of aspects of extended care in all countries, wide variations in how extended care is conceptualised, legislated, funded and implemented, and very little research on the effectiveness of extended care. The authors recommend resolving cross-national variations in the conceptualisation of extended care and further research on the role and contribution of extended care placements to improved outcomes for youth in diverse social, political and economic contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]