NCJ Number
219155
Journal
Child Abuse Review Volume: 16 Issue: 3 Dated: May-June 2007 Pages: 140-152
Date Published
May 2007
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This paper examines preliminary findings from research with youth in foster and residential care in the United Kingdom who had received advocacy services from a range of local-authority and volunteer agencies, as well as the views of social workers and children's rights professionals.
Abstract
The findings show that there were some common features that the youth said they wanted and appreciated in all professionals with whom they interacted, regardless of the nature of the services they provided. Caring, empathy, and friendliness were important to the youth, as were trustworthiness, honesty, reliability, availability, and rapid responses to requests and problems. The issues for which the youth wanted help from professionals pertained to contact with family of origin, issues related to caregiver treatment (both foster caregivers and residential workers), help with disagreements with decisions by local authorities, accommodations, and finances. The youth had different perceptions and understandings of the roles of advocates and children's rights workers. Some could not distinguish their roles from that of other social workers. The main feature of the study was semistructured, qualitative interviews with youth, children's rights workers, and social workers. A purposive sample of 20 youth ages 12-20 was drawn from 4 separate children's rights projects across the Midlands area of the United Kingdom. They had received services from children's rights workers over at least several months while also receiving services from social services departments. The sample consisted of 9 males and 11 females, mainly White British youth. Four youth were from minority ethnic groups. The interviews focused on their experiences in contacts with children's rights workers and social workers. In addition, semistructured interviews were conducted with 12 social workers involved in working with the youth as well as 9 children's rights workers. 38 references