At the DI conference in Sofia, last month, Professor Andy Bilson warned people who are involved in social work and alternative care that we need to stop seeing parents as ‘the problem’ and start making them part of the solution. And he made a very strong case for this.
Continue reading “Involving Parents”Tag: #DIsofia2019
Life Expectancy of Institutionalised Children
During one of the reflective sessions at the DI conference, in Sofia last month, one of the participants mentioned that we need to give more thought to preparing young people who are leaving care. Because, he said, it is all well and good that we take care of them for up to 18 years, but then they still have 50-60 years left to live. While I agree completely with him that more needs to be done in the area of after care for young adults who have grown up in institutions or in other forms of care, I was much more struck by another element of what he said.
Continue reading “Life Expectancy of Institutionalised Children”Bucharest Early Intervention Project
On the last day of the DI conference in Sofia, last month, we were treated to an amazing presentation by the three researchers who set up and are running the Bucharest Early Intervention Project. This is a longitudinal study done in Romania to compare the outcomes for 136 children who were placed in an institution and of whom half stayed in the institution – as they would have if the research project had not taken place – and half were placed in high quality foster care, set up by the research team. And in addition 72 children who grew up in their own families, having never been placed in care, were followed as a comparison group.
Continue reading “Bucharest Early Intervention Project”Limitations to the Use of Small Group Homes
There is increasing debate among people involved in designing alternative care for children as to whether or not small group homes are an acceptable option that is in the best interest of the children. There is no consensus on this yet. In fact, I have recently put in a bid to be allowed to do the literature review that SOS Children’s Villages is commissioning to get an overview of the research done on this.
Continue reading “Limitations to the Use of Small Group Homes”Time Pressure Is a Risk Factor
At the DI conference in Sofia at the start of the month, Jana Hainsworth of Eurochild gave a ‘lessons learned’ presentation in which she gave the EU some pointers on where they need to improve their approach to encouraging the move from institutional to family-based alternative care. In the previous blog (HERE), I discussed her point that there is a need for a shared terminology surrounding alternative care. Another one of her points – and more indirectly several of them – revolved around the power that is associated with being a distributor of money.
Continue reading “Time Pressure Is a Risk Factor”Need for Common Definitions
Jana Hainsworth, the Secretary General of Eurochild (to which I have been recently accepted as a member too), gave a presentation on the way EU involvement in promoting family-based alternative care falls short, at the Deinstitutionalisation Conference in Sofia, at the start of the month. One of the things she brought up in that presentation, was the need for common definitions for different types of alternative care. This is a very important point.
Continue reading “Need for Common Definitions”Helping Children Seek Help
One of the speakers at the DI conference, in Sofia at the start of the month, was Dr Peter Fuggle, director of clinical and service improvement at the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families in the UK. He talked about the Anna Freud Centre’s approach to helping children who have been institutionalised.
Continue reading “Helping Children Seek Help”Deinstitutionalisation of Childcare Conference
Last week, I attended the conference Deinstitutionalisation of Childcare: Investing in Change, in Sofia, Bulgaria. It was a very interesting exchange about how the deinstitutionalisation process in Bulgaria is going and what should be done differently, within a wider international context of deinstitutionalisation approaches.
Continue reading “Deinstitutionalisation of Childcare Conference”