Invisible from View: Leaving and Aftercare Provision in the Republic Of Ireland

Abstract

The adequacy of provisions for young people leaving care and in aftercare in the Republic of Ireland has been the subject of recent policy attention. A landmark report, the Ryan Report (2009), into historic abuse in state institutions recommended strengthening provisions in this area. However, the legislative basis for aftercare remains relatively weak and services for young people leaving care remain ad hoc and regionally variable. This article outlines the current context of leaving and aftercare provision in the Republic of Ireland and traces some of the recent policy debates and recommendations in this area. A genealogical analysis of leaving care and aftercare provision highlights that this issue has historically only emerged as a concern in the context in which young people leaving the care system are perceived as a “threat” to social order. It is argued that the failure to adequately reform leaving and aftercare provision is reflective of wider social inequality and of a context in which young people in care are largely invisible from view.     

Young people leaving care: implementing the children (Leaving Care) Act 2000?

This article presents findings from a large empirical research study which examines the ways in which the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 is being implemented. The evidence presented points to a complex picture of ‘slower running’ and ‘faster running’ leaving care services, modest achievements, ongoing problems, and mixed outcomes. The author argues that compared with previous studies, the increased number of young people leaving care entering post‐16 education, employment and training is a significant development. It is suggested that the overall progress in implementing the Act is slower than might be expected three years after the Act was passed in 2000.     

Young People Leaving Care: Participatory Research to Improve Child Welfare Practices and the Rights of Children and Young People

Abstract

This paper discusses participatory research with young people who are leaving public care in Finland to begin independent lives. The aim of the research, organised by SOS Children's Villages International, was to bring about change in alternative care arrangements, particularly those involving young people's transition to independence. The project used a participatory research design based on employing care-leaving peers as co-researchers. This paper adheres to the methodological principles of empowerment in analysing the personal experiences of young people leaving alternative care with the goal of informing good practice. The findings suggest that the peer research method can be an effective means of empowering young people to develop research skills and to be involved in knowledge production, as well as serving as a means of promoting improved services for “care-leavers”, those young people who are leaving either foster care or institutional care. The participatory and peer research method challenges the traditional understandings of expertise and knowledge production. Although the hierarchy between adult researchers and young people as co-researchers is still evident, the method provides possibilities for better understanding the social- and health-service systems and their challenges and pitfalls from a user's perspective.     

Leaving a legacy: Toward a typology

This article explores the understudied phenomenon of legacy as a component of the aging experience. Against a backdrop of almost exclusive prior focus on transmission of material possessions as the primary form of legacy, the concept is critically examined in developing an expanded, theoretically and empirically grounded perspective. In-depth interviews conducted with 14 adults, ranging in age from 31 to 94 and representing diverse marital, parental and health statuses, reveal multiple dimensions of leaving a legacy in terms of content, creation and transmission. A typology of three distinct but overlapping categories of legacy was identified: biological legacy, material legacy and a legacy of values. Sub-types were identified within each category. Each participant clearly articulated and identified with at least one form of legacy and the majority expressed all three types but with varying degrees of intensity and with the legacy of values viewed as more important than other forms of legacy The findings suggest the need and potential for developing deeper insight into a component of the aging experience that may assume particular significance toward the end of life.     

Leaving Special School: the next step and future aspirations

One of the most important changes within the life-course is the movement from 'childhood' to 'adulthood'. This takes place through many different dimensions of experience, for example, biological, legal, social, cultural, emotional and attitudinal. It is also important to recognise that the concepts, 'childhood' and 'adulthood' are ambiguous and hard to define [Jones, G. &; Wallace, C. (1992) Youth, Family and Citizenship (Buckingham, Open University Press); Coles, B. (1995) Youth and Social Policy: youth, citizenship and young carers (London, UCL Press)]. This is partly due to the fact that they are not static concepts, but are historically and culturally fluid, open to interpretation and change [Ward et al. (1991) The Transition to Adulthood of Young People with Recorded Special Education Needs, final report to The Scottish Office Education Department (Department of Education at the Universities of Edinburgh and Stirling); France, A. (1996) Youth and citizenship in the 1990s, Youth and Policy, 53, pp. 28-43]. Despite this conceptual ambiguity, the transition from 'child' to 'adult' status is viewed as an important achievement within society. However, it is a complex, involved process, which evolves over a period of time. Of course, not all-young people undertake the transition in a similar manner or at the same pace. Social ideas and prejudices, whether these are class, gender, race or disability based, can and do effect the transition experiences of different groups of young people. This paper focuses upon the transition experiences of disabled young people, a group frequently forgotten or hidden within discussions of 'youth'. In particular, it explores and evaluates traditional models of transition with the aid of data drawn from a study of disabled young people leaving special schools [Mitchell, W. (1998) Leaving School - transition experiences and routes taken by disabled young people, D.Phil. thesis, University of York]. The paper initially focuses upon young people's next educational/vocational step after school leaving in relation to the traditional ideal of a school to work transition. Taking a broader approach the paper then explores and begin to unpack the complex concept of a more independent 'adult' status from the perspective of the study's young people and their parents/carers. Have the young people taken steps towards a more 'adult' independent life and, if so, in 'what' areas and 'how'?     

Leaving Home and Boomerang Decisions: A Family Simulation Protocol

Boomeranging—adult children returning home—increasingly occurs in Western industrial societies on a cafeteria-like menu of emerging adulthood. We review benefits and problems across family backgrounds and offer a family simulation protocol for computerized life-course microsimulation complementing data and theory about boomeranging and family relationships. A teaching simulation consistent with this protocol has one or two parents and up to three children with given genders, races, and initial ages in a social influence network. It executes on six decision topics over simulated years with choices Stay/Leave-Home, Seek or Stay Married/Not, Seek Employment/Not, Opt for College/Not, Outside Romance/Not, and Resist Home Leaving/Not. Stay/Leave-Home signifies opposite choices on one topic. Employment, medical, education, and marital status events align with macro data and affect simulated decisions.     

Leaving Alinsu: Towards a Transformative Community of Practice

Wenger's portrait of Alinsu insurance claims processors as elaborated in Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity remains closely associated with the community of practice model. The enduring metaphor of Alinsu has limited the scope of Wenger's theory to relatively simplistic, closed, and reproductive systems. The model has both reproductive and transformative potential, and it is the latter that has been less widely taken up and developed. In this article I consider ways in which analyzing a different instantiation, the No Outsiders participatory action research project, can reinvigorate and broaden our understandings of the community of practice model and point the way toward the possibility of learning and practice communities that are more transformative and less reproductive.     

Leaving Home Early: Passing from Girlhood to Womanhood

This paper presents a case study of a young woman’s narrative of leaving home and her transition to adulthood. The case study is part of a larger research project about young women with an experience of an early break-up from home, through running away or being thrown out. Empirical material underlying this paper consists of a qualitative study of 12 young women that have been interviewed. The aim of the study is to understand how events like running away/being thrown out of home influences their transition to adulthood. The particular narrative demonstrates how a young woman presents and accounts for such a dramatic event as running away or being thrown out from home, and how that is understood in relation to her adulthood. A further aim is to illustrate how social services efforts are reflected in her narrative.     

The Last Time: A Metaphor For Leaving*

Much has been written about the beginning phase of family therapy, little about the end. Joining may be said to set the tone for later therapy, ending establishes directions for the future. As such, this last and crucial phase of therapy warrants careful study. This paper examines the importance of the last session of therapy for both family and therapist, and illustrates techniques which may facilitate future change.     

Leaving the Parental Home: Chinese Culture in an Urban Context

Leaving the parental home is increasingly treated as an essential stepping‐stone toward adulthood in the modern world. The authors argue that this is a cultural process regulated by social norms and institutional settings that vary from place to place. Hong Kong provides an excellent scenario in which Chinese traditions coexist with rapid economic development. Rather than looking at leaving the parental home as a developmental process, Chinese tradition tends to link it with filial obligations and gender status. On the basis of life history data collected in Hong Kong, the authors establish that leaving home has neither gained substantial popularity nor become a unique life stage among Chinese; it continues to be closely associated with the marriage transition and practical considerations such as housing, childcare needs, and the availability of elderly care.     

Leaving Science: Gender Differences in Career Continuity Following a Job Loss

This study investigates gender differences in the postdisplacement experience of nonacademic science and engineering (S&E) workers. Using a pooled sample created from the Displaced Worker Surveys conducted between 1994 and 2008, it finds that (1) this S&E work force is particularly vulnerable to job loss and potential career disruption; (2) displaced female S&E workers are more likely than comparable male workers to exit the work force, a gender difference that is conditional on and explained by marital and parental status; and (3) reemployed female S&E workers are also more likely to leave science for non‐S&E occupations, but this gender difference is limited to unmarried workers. A concluding section discusses the implications of these findings for interpreting gender differences in career outcomes.