Supporting the Participation of Disabled Children and Young People in Decision‐making

Increasing children's and young people's participation in decisions, about their own care and about service development, is a policy priority. Although in general participation is increasing, disabled children are less likely to be involved than non‐disabled children and it is unclear to what extent children with complex needs or communication impairments are being included in participation activities. This article presents research exploring factors to support good practice in participation and discusses policy and practice implications.     

Participation of Mentally Disabled Persons in Experimental Research

Abstract

The need for persons adjudged incompetent is sometimes crucial to performing necessary research. However, this is a complicated proposition since the rights of mentally challenged persons must be protected. There is an acknowledged need to balance the objective requirements of scientific research with the rights and concerns of those who are the subjects of experimentation. This article discusses the role of social workers concerning the participation of mentally challenged persons in experimental research.     

CHAPTER 8: Family Subsystem Functions and Disabled Children:

No abstract available for this article.     

CHAPTER 10: Professional Helpers and Families with Disabled Children:

No abstract available for this article.     

Respite Care for Disabled Children: micro and macro reflections

This paper examines the proposal that by exploring at a micro level the control exercised over children it is possible to identify the wider societal mechanisms for maintaining power at a macro level. The focus of the paper is on the provision of respite care for disabled children in settings away from home. Drawing on principles within childhood sociology and referencing recent research within disability studies consideration is given to issues of 'power and control' in relation to disabled children and how that reflects the structure of adult society. The paper concludes with a discussion of the concept of citizenship as a model for change.     

Key Worker Services for Disabled Children: the Views of Parents

This study reports the findings from 68 interviews with parents of disabled children who are users of seven key worker schemes in England and Wales. The interviews which lasted for one hour each, were tape‐recorded, transcribed and analysed according to both a priori and emerging themes. The findings from this study have implications for policy and practice, for example, the necessity of protected time for key workers, the necessity of conveying clear information about the key worker's role, the importance of access to training and information for the key worker, the need for key workers to be proactive, and for their involvement in care plan and review meetings. Copyright © 2006 The Author(s). Journal compilation © 2006 National Children's Bureau     

残疾儿童社会保障制度的研究

目前,政府通过发展社会保障以增进社会和谐的政策方向基本确立,倡导残疾儿童社会保障制度的适度公正机制是基于经济发展和现代社会平等两者之间的权衡。目的是使社会成员都能够普遍以适度标准不断享受经济社会发展的成果,从而有效地实现社会整合。我国已经初步具备实现残疾儿童社会保障制度的适度公正目标的条件,基于此目标,残疾儿童的社会保障制度仍存在以下制约瓶颈：相关社会保障制度建设法规滞后;政府保障主体地位缺失,财政经费投入不足;残疾儿童参与社会保障层次低、覆盖面窄;保障政策执行部门行政多头管理。因此,残疾儿童社会保障制度的制度设计需要着重于：保持经济发展水平下残疾儿童保障支付享受标准;倡导公正和能动的残疾儿童权利保障价值取向：界定政府责任边界和立法,广泛动员社会力量;整合政府部门残疾儿童社会保障资源。     

Research with Disabled Children: How Useful is Child-centred Ethics?

The title of a collection on 'ethics and methodology of research with children' implies that research with children necessarily raises unique questions about ethics and methods. Our paper questions whether this is so, what the unique questions might be and how they arise. We consider that any extra complications in research with children are common to research with other 'minority' groups. The main complications do not arise from children's inabilities or misperceptions, but from the positions ascribed to children in late twentieth-century Western societies. Clarity about the social origins of any complications in research with children is crucial if these complications are to be addressed. Ethics, methods, theories, data and policy conclusions are inextricably interwoven, and it is important to acknowledge how initial theories inevitably shape policies. Reasons are given for preferring rights-based to child-centred ethics.     

Prospects for Disabled Children and Their Families: An International Perspective

The aim of this paper is to provide an international overview of some of the main developments now taking place in educational provision for children with disabilities. Difficulties experienced by disabled children in many countries in gaining access to any form of education are contrasted with home-based and centre-based projects, such as Portage. Particular attention is given to the nature of collaboration between families and teachers, in the context both of schooling and of community-based rehabilitation. Obstacles to parent-professional collaboration are identified and suggestions made for how these might be overcome.     

Experiences of Grandparenting Disabled Children in the UK: A Qualitative Study of Intergenerational Relationships

Contemporary patterns of family, work, and welfare make the experience of grandparenting complex and diverse. This UK-based qualitative study aimed to explore grandparenting in the context of childhood disability. Nine grandparents (aged 59–79 years) with disabled and non-disabled grandchildren took part in semi-structured interviews. Grandparents provided extensive instrumental and emotional care and support and sought a balance between involvement versus interfering. Grandparents actively drew on life experiences to engage with services to maximize support. Contemplating the future, grandparents had concerns for adult children as well as grandchildren. Developing policies to support grandparents of disabled grandchildren are urgently required.     

Neighborhood Association Participation and Formal Volunteering in Japan

We examine the effect of participation in neighborhood association (NHA) activities on volunteering using the 2010 Japanese General Social Survey data. We find that controlling for established predictors of formal volunteering such as demographic and socioeconomic variables, NHA association participation, either operationalized as a dichotomous or interval variable, positively predicts volunteering. Moreover, some of the established predictors of volunteering (e.g., marital status and associational membership) are useful in predicting NHA participation. Our results indicate a complementary relationship between volunteering and NHA participation. We discuss implications of our study for future research on community volunteering in Japan and elsewhere.     

Children Photographing Well‐being: Facilitating Participation in Research

Children aged 8–12 years took 723 photographs representing well‐being. Another group of children categorised the photographs, identified what was missing and discussed their inter‐relationships. The largest categories were ‘people I love the most (friends)’ (23.2%), ‘activities’ (18%), ‘food and drink’ (17.2%) and ‘animals/pets’ (12.8%). Children reported that the categories were all related and could be subsumed into the general category ‘the way I live’, reflecting their holistic integrationist perspective on well‐being which in turn mirrors the whole child perspective of the Irish National Children's Strategy. The usefulness and limitations of this approach to working with children are discussed. Copyright © 2005 National Children's Bureau.     

Short Break and Respite Services for Disabled Children in England: Comparing Children's and Parents' Perspectives of Their Impact on Children

Researchers, health and social care workers often seek to understand the perspectives of children; but gathering views directly from children can present difficulties. Parents are often asked to provide accounts of children's feelings or opinions on the assumption that their proxy reports are accurate and unproblematic. This qualitative thematic analysis of open‐question responses from 352 parents and 73 disabled children examines their accounts of the impact of short break services on disabled children. Participants' perspectives differed; children tended to describe immediate outcomes such as enjoying activities and participation; parents acknowledged these, but focused on longer term developmental outcomes for children.     

Promoting the Children Act (1989) in Day Services to Disabled Children: Findings from an Action Research Project

SUMMARY: This article describes an action research project designed to assess and promote the implementation of the Children Act (1989) in day services to disabled children under five. Evaluations of six service were undertaken with staff in different local authorities in England and Wales. Each service was evaluated twice, in 1992 and again in 1993. The quality of care on offer to children was consistently high across services, and local authorities appeared to be adopting a flexible approach to the promotion of standards. In addition, services had made improvements in areas such as publicity and information, cultural sensitivity and partnership with parents. Some suggestions are made about factors which contributed to these developments, and issues requiring further attention are highlighted.     

Now Being Social: The Barrier of Designing Outdoor Play Spaces for Disabled Children

The design of outdoor public play spaces such that disabled children can make use of them is set in the three constructs of play, childhood and disability, drawing upon academic learning, international policy and national policy in England. The suggestion is made that one of the main barriers to the adequate provision of such spaces is that providers and designers do not know how to design such spaces. The paper explores the knowledge which is available to overcome this barrier and which might lead to the provision and design of appropriate outdoor play spaces that disabled children can more fully use.