Caroline McGregor

Why is history important at moments of transition? The case of ‘transformation’ of Irish child welfare via the new Child and Family Agency

This paper provides a critical commentary on researching social work in transition to make the case for why history is important at crucial moments of change. The present transition of child protection and welfare practice from a Health Services Executive Structure to an Independent Child and Family Agency (Tusla) is focused on for illustration. This development signifies a major transition of services within the country influenced by a number of factors, most notably a number of high profile cases of child abuse within institutions in the past and child deaths/neglect cases in the present. In particular, a discourse of prevention, early intervention and the promotion of childrens rights are most dominant in light of a quest to purge the mistakes of the past. Supported by a history of the present approach, the author argues that while the existence of a ‘discursive shift’ typified by the establishment of an independent agency is arguably conclusive, the evidence of changes in practice, culture and underpinning analytical approaches is much more vague and complex. The paper concludes with reflections on implications for a wider European and global context and a call for the need for more critically informed approaches to history to inform present transformations.

Reimagining adoption in Ireland: a viable option for children in care?

ABSTRACT This article considers how adoption may develop as viable option for permanency planning for children in care in Ireland following the Constitutional Referendum in 2012 on Children’s Rights. In order to be prepared to consider how adoption can be developed as a viable alternative to long term care, we need to focus on the specific context of Ireland and the learning from elsewhere. The themes that are central to understanding the Irish context are: history of adoption in Ireland; impact of a dominance of a familist ideology underpinned by the Irish Constitution’s Article 41 and 42 and the nature of Irish child and family law. With reference to learning from other jurisdictions, we have selected three inter-related themes: learning from the development of adoption as a permanency option; critical overview of concurrency planning and a consideration of open adoption. This article is intended to be informative and exploratory in recognition that this theme is likely to evolve over a number of years within the system in Ireland. The article highlights the extent to which the local socio-cultural and historical context influences policy development and should have resonance for both for readers in Ireland and other jurisdictions experiencing similar reforms.

Disabled Children and Child Protection: Learning From Literature Through a Non-Tragedy Lens

ABSTRACT Disabled children experience unique vulnerabilities in the context of child protection and welfare services. Current research alludes to strong concerns about social inequality, professional responses, judgement, knowledge and awareness limitations, and practical constraints. This article presents a focused commentary on the literature pertaining to child protection and disabled children. It does so through the lens of a broad affirmative non-tragedy approach. Within this, consideration is given to the distinct experience of disabled children within the broader child protection and welfare system, including experiences of being in care and of leaving care. The matter of children’s rights is explicitly addressed with a particular focus on the right for children to have their voices heard. Core themes are drawn from the body of material, which are then used to inform a discussion on the key points of learning for practitioners and policy makers moving forward. The article concludes with the recognition that, to date the matter of supporting disabled children and their families within the child protection and welfare context remains both critical and broadly neglected. It proposes that the affirmative non-tragedy model offers an effective theoretical lens to progress an assertive children’s rights approach within the child protection and welfare context.

Early implementation of a family-centered practice model in child welfare: findings from an Irish study

This article reports on the outcomes of a research study on the early implementation of a strengths-based family-centred model of practice in Ireland known as the Meitheal model. The paper aims to translate the key messages from this research to practice with families involved in the child welfare system. This is done by highlighting the process by which intervention focused on support and prevention using a strengths perspective has begun to occur in practice. Using data collected from stakeholders involved in the implementation of the practice model, the research provides insight into the opportunities and challenges involved at macro and micro-levels of practice. The discussion links this development in Ireland to the wider international context, using three broad frameworks informed by the ecological model; a framework for determining thresholds in children’s services and the continuum of intervention between support and protection to inform system change aimed at enhancing family support and better outcomes for children and families. Underpinning this is an emphasis on how Meitheal as a strengths-based approach can influence the achievement of the principles of early intervention, prevention and family support in the child welfare system in Ireland.

Hoping for a better tomorrow’: a qualitative study of stressors, informal social support and parental coping in a Direct Provision centre in the West of Ireland

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on informal social support and coping amongst parents living in a Direct Provision (DP) reception centre in the rural west of Ireland. Since 2000, asylum seekers in Ireland are subject to DP where the state provides accommodation and food to asylum seeking families, and a small supplementary allowance. Despite calls for its abandonment and that it constitutes ‘citizenship based discrimination’, DP features prominently in Irish policy on asylum seeking. Drawing on qualitative interview materials from an evaluation of childcare services in one asylum seeker reception centre, we argue that children living in DP are frequently exposed to risky behaviours, and that the DP system adversely affects children’s resilience, stifling their educational, emotional and social development. In Ireland, supports for families and children living in DP are relatively weak, and despite protests for enhancing asylum seekers’ rights in housing and employment, asylum seekers interviewed for this study feel abandoned by the state. Instead, they rely heavily on local services for emotional and financial supports to cope with living conditions in DP. The paper argues for a culturally responsive approach to policy-making that is grounded in human rights and family support which recognizes the importance of community services in providing emotional and practical supports to parents.

A review of Children First and Keeping Safe Training in Ireland: implications for the future

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to report on the evaluation of two standardised training programmes provided by the statutory children and family service in the Republic of Ireland in 2012. This involved an evaluation of Children First Basic Level Training, which was delivered to all staff employed in the statutory services, and Keeping Safe, Basic Level Training, which was delivered externally to those working with children and families in voluntary and community services. The objectives of this review were: to determine the perceived need of all participants on both training programmes; to establish the relevance of the training programmes vis-à-vis the participants work practice; to evaluate whether both training programmes have met their stated aims; and to establish the necessary components of a training programme to inform future development. This retrospective review was conducted using mixed methods. The findings show that, in the main, the needs of the respondents were met by the training. Most respondents agreed that the training met its aims and was relevant. Valuable suggestions were made regarding development for the future. However, due to an unexpectedly low response rate to the research, the low sample size has meant that we cannot deduce that the mostly positive results are representative of participants in the training programmes as a whole. However, while not a reliable representation of the whole trainee population, the findings are nonetheless illustrative and instructive as a guide within this complex and important field for the development of future training. It is concluded that given the ongoing challenge of protecting children from abuse and neglect, the findings will inform a renewed commitment to ongoing development of generic training as well as the development of more advanced methods of evaluation, and increased engagement of training participants in the research process.

Child Protection and Welfare Systems in Ireland: Continuities and Discontinuities of the Present

This chapter provides an overview of the Irish child protection and welfare system, and examines continuities and discontinuities between the past and the present. 2012 is chosen as a pivotal change moment around which to critically examine current developments. This year is chosen due to seminal change events which occurred such as a referendum on the rights of the child and the publication of a report that led to the blueprint for the establishment of an independent Child and Family Agency in Ireland. We chart existing histories of child welfare and comment on significant trends and developments. Against the backdrop of this history, we discuss whether, almost 50 years on, the context, appetite for and investment in change, is to be realised in the biggest structural change to children’s services since the development of Community Care under the Health Act in 1970. In undertaking this analysis, we examine five themes: the establishment of a new Child and Family Agency (Tusla); Signs of Safety adopted as a new national child protection approach; changing trends in child welfare as demonstrated by recent statistics, retention rates for social workers in child protection; and dealing with retrospective child abuse disclosures, institutional abuse and Church-State relations.

Interrogating institutionalisation and child welfare: the Irish case, 1939–1991

ABSTRACT The topic of institutionalisation and child welfare in Ireland has garnered increasing national and international public and scholarly attention over the past twenty years. This is not an Irish phenomenon. Governments internationally have utilised commissions to investigate a range of historical abuses against children and young adults, many in an institutional setting (see Age of Inquiry, http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/research/ageofinquiry/). One of the most recent shocking historical revelations opens the paper – the discovery of the burial of 796 children in a septic tank in a mother and baby home in Tuam, Co. Galway (http://www.mbhcoi.ie/MBH.nsf/page/index-en). Following this, the historical approach – a history of the present – is explained. A number of questions about the past use of institutions in Ireland are posed to help illuminate the importance of this issue to the present day. We consider the nature of institutionalisation and the development of law and policy prior to and after the Second World War. Our questions lead us to a discussion of three themes: the role of economics; parentage and gender; and the relationship between the State and the Church. We conclude with a commentary on why such interrogation of institutional care is important in the present.

An informed pedagogy of community, care, and respect for diversity: Evidence from a qualitative evaluation of early years services in the west of Ireland

ABSTRACT This article draws on qualitative evidence from an evaluation of the “Greater Tomorrow” Crèche and Ballyhaunis Community Preschool in Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, Ireland in 2016. The article focuses on the approach to practice and the underlying ethos of these two services, reflecting a clearly articulated respect for diversity and the privileging of relationships with families by the practitioners and management team. We argue for the significance of early years services in offsetting risk factors associated with adverse childhood experiences and environments, reflecting international research evidence for the potential benefits of high-quality early childhood education and care. The practice orientation within the settings operationalises the national quality and curriculum frameworks of Aistear and Síolta in foregrounding the concepts of identity and belonging, well-being, and partnership with families in daily practice. The services under study were established during a period of rapid social and cultural change in Ireland; heightened economic activity beginning in the mid-1990s was a catalyst for increasing female employment and inward migration. This article argues that in such a context, these services responded to the needs of the uniquely diverse community they serve, contributed to children’s early learning and development, and provided material and emotional supports to children and parents.

Transforming European welfare policies, social work and social care practices: a special issue from the Third European Conference for Social Work Research

This special issue documents a selection of the many excellent papers presented at the Third European Conference for Social Work and Social Care Research (ECSWR) in March 2013 at Jyväskylä, Finland. It follows an earlier special issue, which was based on the very first ECSWR research conference series held at Oxford in 2011 (see European Journal of Social Work, volume 15, issue 4). The editors of this important first issue, Staffan Höjer and Brian Taylor, were enthusiastic and full of trust when they described in their editorial the recent developments and near future perspectives for European social work and social care research. One of their future visions, following the North American scholarly developments of the Society for Social Work and Research, was to have a distinct European organization with the task to promote high-level innovative and interdisciplinary social work and social care research, build networks of researchers within Europe as well as foster links between European and wider international research networks. We, the editors of the second special issue in European Journal of Social Work from the third ECSWR conference are very pleased to inform readers that such an organization the European Social Work Research Association (ESWRA), which saw daylight in January 2014, was first conceived and planned at the Jyväskylä conference. Its existence was collectively and legally confirmed in a historic meeting at the recent fourth ECSWR at Bolzano/Bozen, Italy. According to the Foundation Protocol, the new association ‘will take forward the development, practice and utilization of social work research, to enhance knowledge about individual and social problems, and promote just and equitable societies’. And so, an important milestone for the future activities in European social work research has been passed. The ESWRA will oversee the planning of the next ECSWR conference—our fifth so far! The conference will be in April 2015, and will be run in cooperation with the local partnering organizers from the University of Ljubljana. The first chairperson of the new society is a British Professor Ian Shaw. He will be followed in the position in 2015 by an Italian Professor Silvia Fargion. Presently, the new organization is recruiting members across countries and across the many well-established research traditions including social work and social pedagogy, as well as other disciplines in the wide social field. Among its other activities, the association is planning to continue cooperation with the European Journal of Social Work to publish further special issues arising from the conference papers of the future. As the current guest editors, we are grateful to have this opportunity to act as one of the links in the long chain of the ongoing international networking and publishing which has become more and more crucial for the increasingly collaborative present day knowledge production. European Journal of Social Work, 2014 Vol. 17, No. 5, 611–615, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2014.955326