The School: The Crossroads for Collaboration

This essay argues that the time has come to restructure schools to allow the “whole” child to receive service at the school. The provision of time, place, and personnel to respond to the needs of today's children might facilitate their academic progress. If students and families can find support in one location, perhaps anxiety can be reduced and academics can be strengthened. The school can do little on its own to help children whose lives are in chaos due to poverty, hunger, abuse, ill health, family disintegration, neglect, fear, or hopelessness. Collateral collaboration needs to evolve in which professional development is a shared responsibility of all agencies that serve a community.     

In Need of a Guarantee

SUMMARY: Recent research, together with school inspection reports by the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED), reveal that many children are given little opportunity to take part in arts activities. The deficiencies found in arts provision in schools are mainly the unintentional effects of local management of schools and the way schools are interpreting the National Curriculum. Linked with these is the low priority that is often given to ensuring children have ready and wide-ranging access to the arts. A new report by the Royal Society of Arts, with support by the Arts Council of England and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, documents the key research findings, explains why the arts are at risk, and recommends ways forward (based on the research) and aimed at all groups with a responsibility for arts education in schools.     

Re‐framing the Analysis: A 3‐dimensional Perspective of Prisoners’ Children's Well‐being

This article highlights three dimensions to understanding children's well‐being during and after parental imprisonment which have not been fully explored in current research. A consideration of ‘time’ reveals the importance of children's past experiences and their anticipated futures. A focus on ‘space’ highlights the impact of new or altered environmental dynamics. A study of ‘agency’ illuminates how children cope within structural, material and social confines which intensify vulnerability and dependency. This integrated perspective reveals important differences in individual children's experiences and commonalities in broader systemic and social constraints on prisoners’ children. The paper analyses data from a prospective longitudinal study of 35 prisoners’ children during and after their (step) father's imprisonment to illustrate the arguments.     

‘The Bad People Go and Speak to Her’: Young People’s Choice and Agency when Accessing Mental Health Support in School

Concerns about the mental health and well‐being of children and young people have been articulated in health and education policy fields as a call for closer working between schools and providers of mental health support services. Drawing from a Scottish study, this article explores issues of access, when mental health initiatives are sited in formal educational settings. In particular, it focuses on the implications for the agency of children and young people seeking support from those services when and how they choose. The study argues that over‐reliance on teachers as the main referral route to service influences what is deemed to be a problem, who is thought to need support and how the interventions are viewed by the children and young people. Alternative approaches are discussed, which offer opportunities for children and young people to explore the available services and make their own choices about their level of engagement.     

‘What is left…?’: The implications of losing Maintained Nursery Schools for vulnerable children and families in England

This TACTYC funded research highlights the role that Maintained Nursery Schools (MNS) play in supporting families within areas of extreme social deprivation in the UK. Data collected through survey and interview demonstrated the positive impact that these schools have upon disadvantaged children and their families, providing a breadth and depth of ongoing care, against a backdrop of ongoing fiscal cuts and uncertainty. Often this provision was in lieu of the reported minimisation of other social services support for struggling families. We argue in this paper that the loss of these state institutions could be highly detrimental to the families that they currently support.     

The relationship between loneliness and social interaction in women prisoners

The increase in women prisoners is a societal issue and affects not only the woman, but also her family of origin and her children. This study did not support the hypothesis that more frequent visits from friends or family decrease loneliness, but it did support the hypothesis that the presence or absence of friends and the number of friends within the facility make a significant difference in the loneliness experienced by women prisoners. It is within the scope of nursing practice to lessen the burden of loneliness and to improve the physical and emotional health of the person by addressing the issue of loneliness.     

Children with epilepsy who have special needs

SUMMARY. About five percent of children with epilepsy are severely or multiply handicapped. Many of these probably did not go to school before the 1970 Education Act, although epilepsy had been a named category for special education from the earliest provision. This paper describes two studies of the characteristics of children attending the residential special schools for epilepsy in England and Wales before the 1981 Education Act, and discusses the provision of local services for severely handicapped children with epilepsy as a consequence of the Act and the possible continuing role for residential schools for this group.     

“The Politics of the HealthCare Reform Debate: Public Support of Including Undocumented Immigrants and Their Children in Reform Efforts in the U.S.”

Although U.S. immigration and health care policies appear to be highly correlated, scholarship has yet to gauge the public's views toward providing undocumented immigrants with health coverage at the state level. We analyze support for including undocumented immigrants in health care reform in New Mexico. Utilizing an original public opinion survey of New Mexico adults, we find that individuals are more supportive of the state providing health care to the children of undocumented immigrant than to their parents. Multivariate logistic regression analyses suggest that factors such as liberal ideology and perceptions of commonalities with Latinos increase support levels. Despite a lack of support among a majority of respondents, the influence of perceived commonalities with immigrants suggests that reform advocates and political elites who mobilize along ethnic or human solidarity may be successful in creating conditions for the inclusion of undocumented immigrants in the public provision of health care at the state level.     

Re‐Forming the School: Taking Swedish Lessons

In the context of government decentralisation and integration of services, over the last 15 years Sweden has been developing an all‐day school based on inter‐professional teamworking and adopting a holistic approach to working with children. The article describes these recent educational reforms in Sweden, which have sought to re‐structure the school and develop new ways of working, offers some evaluative comments on this process and considers possible implications of these reforms for other countries. It compares Swedish school reforms with recent English policy developments intended to make ‘extended schools’ a universal provision by 2010.     

Colonial State Entrapped – The Problem of Unregistered Schools in Hong Kong in the 1950s and 1960s

Utilizing sources from newspapers, published official documents, and declassified governmental files from archives in Hong Kong and England, this article explores the problem of unregistered schools in Hong Kong in the 1950s and 1960s. After the war the Hong Kong colonial government played a limited role in education provision, and private institutions became the chief providers of schooling facilities. To prevent private schools from operating in a manner detrimental to the political stability of the territories, and to ensure pupils' health and safety, the ruling authorities imposed strict regulations. This approach increased the cost of running private schools, caused a substantial portion of education demand to remain unfulfilled, and consequently led to the emergence of unregistered schools. These unlawful institutions placed the government under tremendous pressure, both because some were tied to questionable political factions and because the founding of these institutions provoked objections from operators of legal private schools. Since the colonial state continued to assume a limited role in education provision, strong action brought against unlawful institutions would have further increased the number of unschooled children and undermined the popularity of the government. These pressures made the presence of black market schools a very difficult problem to resolve.     

Time for justice: safeguarding the rights of disabled children

This article reviews two core strategies for safeguarding the rights of disabled children and examines the extent to which these processes advance justice for children in accessing an inclusive and equitable education. The article evaluates the adequacy of the legal system in the face of increased evidence of exclusionary practices of schools, and the low uptake of the disability tribunal as a vehicle for redressing discriminatory practices. It reviews the work undertaken with schools to develop procedures and processes to support them in identifying disabled pupils in order to monitor the impact of their policies and practices. Although there were some limitations, this work provided a platform from which to ensure that schools engaged with their responsibilities and understood more about the ways in which a child’s impairment impacted on their participation in school life. Instead we are dependent on the work of voluntary associations to safeguard children’s rights.     

Kevin and Peter: responses to two ‘preventable deaths’

European welfare states have substantial provision to ensure that children are brought up in conditions that meet the articles of the United Nations’ Convention of the Rights of the Child. In our analysis of two preventable deaths in Germany and England, we focus primarily on Article 18, which directs states to ensure that there is adequate provision to support parents in their responsibilities, and Article 19, which ensures children’s safety and protection. We outline the legal framework, which existed at the time of two child deaths: Kevin from Bremen and Peter in London, both young children who were subject to formal state supervision and oversight. The events – including the press response, their aftermath and the subsequent changes to social work practice through legislation and guidance will be examined. Our subsequent analysis will evaluate the extent to which events altered the balance between Articles 18 and 19 in the two countries, and the extent to which a Children’s Rights approach in this area offers new insights. The analysis will suggest that a rights-based approach offers some benefits for a comparative framework and understanding child and family social work, but also that it is not without some difficulties.     

School breakfast clubs,children and family support†

School breakfast clubs are a form of before school provision serving breakfast to children who arrive early. This paper explores their potential to provide support for families at risk of social exclusion. A national evaluation of a Department of Health pilot initiative suggests that their provision can afford valued support to families coping with varying degrees of difficulty in their material, environmental, relational and social circumstances. Many parents regarded clubs as successful in encouraging children to eat breakfast, reducing pressures in the morning and providing an additional source of affordable, trusted child care to those in work, studying or seeking employment. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Development of Special Education in Brazil

This paper examines the development of special education in Brazil within a wider context of educational systems, societal changes, and the international scenario. Attention is focused mainly on the provision for pupils categorised as educable mentally deficient, as more than three-quarters of the special education clientele enrolled in the regular school system are classified as having educable mental deficiency. From the beginning of the institutionalisation of special educational services in Brazil, the public sector has placed more emphasis on special class type provision, therefore, the majority of these pupils are found in special classes within regular schools. However, although this type of provision might be regarded as mainstreamed provision, it is argued that if children are to be fully integrated into the 'normal' school life, reforms in the education system and more fundamental social changes are needed.     

‘It’s like we’re locked in a box’: Girls’ and mothers’ experiences of the police and legal system following child sexual abuse

This article focuses on girls’ and mothers’ experiences of police and criminal justice system responses and the impact of investigation processes following reporting of child sexual abuse. Participants spoke of a lack of timely therapeutic provision and the subsequent role of female caregivers in providing support. Problems with criminal justice processes and the subsequent impact on families’ wider lives were also discussed. Findings suggest that criminal justice processes need to be better attuned to these micro level impacts and should show more sensitivity to the overall experience of children in the aftermath of sexual abuse. Implications for practice are discussed.     

From ‘public health’ to ‘safeguarding children’: British health visiting in policy,practice and research

This study examines the location of British health visiting in contemporary policy discourses concerned with public health and safeguarding children. It argues that professional identity and orientation can be understood through health visiting’s long history of public health work with children and families, which has included an engagement with protecting children. The expansive safeguarding children agenda, which includes the requirement to undertake a progressive universal approach to service provision and which incorporates a broad concept of risk and requires early intervention, has created tensions, particularly given current workforce constraints. The location and visibility of British health visiting in the academic and practice worlds also shape how the profession is understood.     

Réinterroger la relation entre école et mobilité sociale. Le cas des enfants d’agriculteurs et d’ouvriers dans l’Ouest

Till now, the relation between schooling and social mobility, a classical question in the sociology of education, has been approached through analyses of a structural sort, either by focusing on the functions that schools are supposed to fill or by adopting the timeless model of neoclassical economics. This approach does not examine all possible relations between schools and social mobility; nor does it see these relations in terms of a process. A study of the scholastic biographies of the children of farmers and workers in western France renews our conception of this relation. It shows that this relation mainly stems from a combination of quite heterogeneous elements, which we glimpse in these biographies.     

The benefits of prisoner participation in interdisciplinary learning

Abstract

This paper considers the provision of an inter-disciplinary workshop day held for Social Work, Police and Nursing students at a UK university. The focus of the day was to give the students an insight into the reality of being a mother in prison, and the impact that having a mother in prison has upon children. A key feature of the day was the involvement of a group of imprisoned mothers from an open prison, who shared their experiences and engaged with students in small groups. The workshop allowed the stereotypes that the prisoners and student professionals held in relation to one another to be challenged. The planning, aims, process and outcomes of the day are considered along with feedback from those taking part. Students reported increased awareness of the stigma faced by this often overlooked vulnerable group of service users, an increased recognition of the needs of children with mothers in prison and an appreciation of the power of interdisciplinary working to deliver a good service. The imprisoned mothers welcomed the chance to educate the students about the issues faced by themselves and their children, and they found the experience of participating to be positive and empowering.     

Do comprehensive schools reduce social mobility?1

This paper investigates the claim that the shift from a selective to a comprehensive school system had a deleterious effect on social mobility in Great Britain. Using data from the National Child Development Study, we compare the chances, for both class and income mobility, of those who attended different kinds of school. Where media attention focuses exclusively on the chances for upward mobility of those children from lowly origins who were (or would have been) judged worthy of selection into a grammar school, we offer more rounded analyses. We match respondents in a way that helps us to distinguish those inequalities in mobility chances that are due to differences between children from those due to differences between the schools they attended; we look at the effects of the school system on the mobility chances of all children, not merely those from less advantaged origins; and we compare comprehensive- and selective-system schools, not merely comprehensive and grammar schools. After matching, we find, first, that going to a grammar school rather than a comprehensive does not make low-origin children more likely to be upwardly mobile but it helps them move further if they are; second, that grammar schools do not benefit working-class children, in terms of class mobility, more than they benefit service-class children, but, in terms of income mobility, such schools benefit low-income children somewhat more than they benefit higher-income children - that benefit relating only to rather modest and limited movements within the income distribution. Finally, however, the selective system as a whole yields no mobility advantage of any kind to children from any particular origins: any assistance to low-origin children provided by grammar schools is cancelled out by the hindrance suffered by those who attended secondary moderns. Overall, our findings suggest that comprehensive schools were as good for mobility as the selective schools they replaced.     

Where Are the Children's Experiences? Analysing Social and Cultural Exclusion in 'Special' and 'Mainstream' Schools

In this paper we employ ethnographic data to illustrate that disabled children encounter discriminatory notions of 'normality' and 'difference' in both 'special' and 'mainstream' schools, and that these experiences relate to both the structural forces in schools, and the everyday individual and cultural practices of adults and children. In contrast to much of the literature in the field, this paper examines the everyday life experiences of adults and disabled children from their own perspective. We highlight disabled children's own criticisms of 'special' and 'mainstream' schools to illustrate the fluid nature of disabled children's lives within educational settings. We argue that schools will be prevented from becoming fully inclusive until adults who control schools take account of children's views of specific educational processes and until educational policy makers adopt a more nuanced multi-level approach to inclusion. Children should be enabled to challenge the structural, cultural and individual conditions which create disability.