Decision Making for Children and Young People Who Lack Capacity

Childhood ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Louise Skyrme ◽  
Simon Woods

Issues relating to qualitative research with disabled children and young people will be discussed. Semi-structured interviews with boys who have Duchenne muscular dystrophy were conducted to explore their thoughts on how they might make a decision to take part in medical research. Assumptions about disabled children’s vulnerability can impact how researchers conduct qualitative research, and how they are involved in significant decision-making. Working reflexively and in partnership with children illustrates their competence, supporting reconsideration of their vulnerability.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Lynne Tammi

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­This article examines current Scottish national and local government awareness of, and responses to, the learning and development needs and entitlements of Gypsy/Traveller children and young people pre and during the COVID-19 pandemic.  A snapshot analysis of emerging testimony from Learning and Development Workers and parents and young people focuses on, and gives insight to, how the lack of access to digital devices and data and front-line workers’ discretionary decision making has impacted on young Gypsy/Travellers’ ability to access formal and non-formal learning and development during the pandemic.


Author(s):  
Katrin Križ

This book examines a participatory approach in child protection practices in Norway and the United States, exploring ways of empowering children. The book shows how children can be encouraged to develop and express their own opinions and explores tools for child protection workers to negotiate complex boundaries around the inclusion of children in decision-making. The goal of the book is to show in what ways child protection caseworkers employed by public child protection agencies in Norway and the United States can create citizens by promoting the participation of children and young people in their everyday practice. Public child protection agencies are only one part of the citizenship piece, but they are a salient one in the lives of children and young people who encounter them. Child protection caseworkers working in public child protection agencies, make very important decisions about children and young people's lives and provide children, youth, and families with pertinent services. The book presents valuable insights from front-line child protection professionals' unique perspectives and experiences within two very different systems, and evaluates the impacts of different organizational practices in promoting children's participation.


Author(s):  
Clive Diaz

This chapter considers children and parent’s perspectives of child protection conferences and whether they feel actively involved in decision making. It is based on interviews with 40 children and 52 parents in two local authorities whose children were subject to a child protection plan at the time. Most parents felt unsupported throughout the child protection process, reporting feelings of powerlessness, intimidation and fear. Parents reported that they found child protection conference particularly stigmatizing and oppressive and this led to them not trusting social workers and often other key agencies. A further interesting finding was that some parents felt sorry for their social workers and stated that they seemed stressed, clearly under too much pressure and often did not do what that said they could do. The chapter also considered young people’s views of social workers and what the barriers and enablers of good child protection practice are. This chapter highlights the high number of social workers young participants had; their relationships with their social worker and their perception of the child protection conference. The extent to which the young participants were aware of the impact of bureaucracy and high caseloads on the service they receive, coupled with the impact of the high turnover of social workers, was also examined. These factors impacted on how much the children and young people participated in the work that social workers were carrying out with them and the extent to which they trusted their social workers.


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