Cathy Murray

Young People's Participation in Decisions Affecting Their Welfare.

This article focuses on young people and participation, drawing on a study of the Scottish Childrens Hearings system, titled Deciding in Childrens Interests, which was conducted at the University of Stirling between 1994 and 1997. It notes the surprising paucity of recent research on the hearings system, given that it was one of the earliest examples of young people systematically participating in decisions affecting them in a child welfare context. The authors consider several dimensions of participation in relation to the hearings system and other decision-making arenas. They suggest that participation rights may have become a reality more for young people involved in welfare systems than for other young people in the UK.

Peer Led Focus Groups and Young People.

Peer led focus groups, a qualitative social science research method, and their use with young people are examined. The paper outlines three developments that have contributed to their emergence, namely: traditional focus groups, peer education and participatory research. Drawing on a study in progress, the advantages and challenges associated with peer led focus groups are discussed. A key benefit is that the power differential between the adult researcher and the researched is removed, at least at the point of data collection, rendering peer led focus groups one of few research contexts in which young people can speak collectively with no adult present.

Young People's Help-Seeking: An alternative model

This article is based on a study of young peoples help-seeking. Fifty-five qualitative interviews with young people aged 13–14 are analysed to take account of stage process models. It is argued that while the models do have relevance to young peoples help-seeking, they have two key limitations. First, they ignore problem legitimization. Second, they do not accord a place in young peoples currenthelp-seeking to prior help-seeking pathways. The view that stage process models represent help-seeking as individualized and static led to the formulation by the author of an alternative help-seeking model, in which problem legitimization from micro to macro levels is incorporated alongside young peoples prior helpseeking pathways.

Anxiety, defences and the primary task in integrated children’s services: enhancing inter-professional practice

The past decade has seen substantial changes in the configuration of services for children and families in the UK. Most notably, the inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbié raised serious questions about the professional systems designed to safeguard children and the importance of professionals working effectively together to protect children. The research informing this paper was undertaken with a group of childcare social work practitioners and explored their everyday work experiences of the post-Climbié introduction of the Every Child Matters agenda and Integrated Childrens Services. Through the application of psychodynamic and systemic concepts to the research findings, the paper identifies new perspectives on barriers to effective integrated working and makes suggestions for working practices that may overcome them.

State intervention and vulnerable children: implementation revisited

This article derives from a two year study of ‘Home Supervision’, conducted as part of a programme of research on the Children (Scotland) Act 1995. The focus is on children looked after by the local authority who are on a legal supervision order at home, primarily as a consequence of having been abused or neglected, having offended or having failed to attend school without reasonable excuse. Two assumptions, both arguably a legacy of Lipsky, are challenged: first, that non-implementation by street-level bureaucrats is in opposition to their managers; and, second, the passivity of clients in respect of policy making. It is argued that the street-level bureaucrats and managers in the Home Supervision study share assumptive worlds in respect of children on home supervision, and that clients, as agentic actors, reveal a capacity for shaping policy at the implementation stage. These issues are explored and their implications for implementation studies and child welfare are discussed.

Young people’s perspectives: The trials and tribulations of going straight

This article reports on a study which comprised secondary analysis of 112 semi-structured interviews with 50 young people who had desisted from offending and 62 who had never offended. The findings highlight the need to conceptualize desistance as a two stage process. Desistance tales, which featured in the interviews, describe the events leading up to the point at which offenders ceased to offend. However, desistance also involves staying straight and the challenges of this second phase are illuminated. Desisters and non-offenders experienced a lack of kudos, reported being bullied and were tempted to offend, although for desisters this was more pervasive and covered a wider range of offences. The point of divergence was in respect of the pleasures associated with offending, which many desisters observed were now missing from their lives. It is clear that both desisters and non-offenders have something to lose by not offending and that maintaining their non-offending status constitutes a struggle not previously reflected in adult representations of youth. That non-offending is achieved at a price is evidenced by the trials and tribulations they encounter. Finally, the advantages and limitations of secondary analysis of qualitative data are considered and the method is recommended for criminological researchers.

Children’s rights in Rwanda: a hierarchical or parallel model of implementation?

The paper reports on a qualitative study, entitled Childrens Rights in Rwanda, which was conducted in Kigali, Rwanda in 2007. Qualitative interviews were conducted with government ministers, senior staff in non-governmental organisations, Human Rights Commissioners, a Senior Prosecutor and the Ombudsman. Two focus groups were held with teenage pupils. The study explores the key childrens rights - provision, protection and participation - enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The research question is whether childrens participation rights feature in Rwanda, a country in which childrens rights to provision and to protection are still being addressed. A parallel model and a hierarchical model of implementing childrens rights are proposed and the use of elite interviews discussed. A key finding is that a parallel model of implementation of childrens rights is evident, with childrens right to participation (at least in the public sphere) being addressed alongside childrens right to provision and protection. In the private sphere, childrens participation rights lag behind