scholarly journals Views of the Child Reports: Hearing Directly from Children Involved in Post-Separation Disputes

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 148-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Birnbaum
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Worker ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Child Reports ◽  
Children’S Participation ◽  
Family Breakdown ◽  
Participation In Decision Making ◽  
Children’S Views ◽  
Children's Participation ◽  
Research And Policy

Views of the Child reports are being increasingly used in Canada and other countries as a means of directly obtaining the child’s perspective on disputes between their parents and/or guardians. The reports provide information about the child’s perspective based on one or more interviews with a social worker. Yet, little research exists about their use and impact, the benefits and limitations of the approach, and less about what factors need to be considered in establishing practices and protocols to safely advance children’s views before the court. This article draws on the direct experiences of 24 children between the ages of 6–17 years about their views and preferences during family breakdown. The children describe how they wanted to speak to someone about their views and preferences, raised questions about the accuracy of the reporting of their views, the need for protecting their confidentiality by having a say of what is included in the report, and their support for children’s participation in decision-making post-separation. Practice, research and policy considerations are also highlighted in order for children’s participation to be truly meaningful to them, their parents and the courts.

Children’s Participation in Decision Making From Child Welfare Workers’ Perspectives: A Systematic Review

2021 ◽  
pp. 104973152098484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karmen Toros
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Child Welfare Workers ◽  
Children’S Participation ◽  
Participation In Decision Making ◽  
Children's Participation ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
Welfare Workers

This article explores child welfare workers’ experiences of children’s participation in decision making in the child protection system. The systematic review follows the principles of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement and includes 12 peer-reviewed articles published in academic journals from 2009 to 2019. Findings indicate that children’s participation in decision making is generally limited or nonexistent. The age of the child is an important determining factor concerning whether the child is given the opportunity to participate in decision making. Potential harm for children that may result from participation is considered when deciding on whether to include a child in the decision-making process.

scholarly journals SOCIAL AND LEGAL DISCOURSE OF CHILDREN’S PARTICIPATION IN DECISION-MAKING IN POLAND AND RUSSIA: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-70
Author(s):  
KRYSTYNA HELAND-KURZAK ◽  
ALEXANDRA FILIPOVA
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Search Process ◽  
The Core ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
Children’S Participation ◽  
Participation In Decision Making ◽  
Legal Policies ◽  
Children's Participation ◽  
The Right

This article draws attention to online discourse of children’s participation in decision-making. The participation of children is located in one of the core principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). This study examines the right of the child to express his/her opinion and the participation of the child in matters affecting his/her interests. This paper aims to compare Poland and Russia results in the search process in the Google global search engine, level from 2004 to 2019 using Google Trends. We discover that there are connecting discourses among legal policies in Poland and Russia. There are also differences between clusters of arguments about existence of children’s rights in practice. ice.

METHODOLOGICAL SPECIFICITY OF STUDYING THE PHENOMENON OF CHILDREN’S PARTICIPATION IN DECISION- MAKING IN FOREIGN STUDIES

2020 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-63
Author(s):  
E.M Skrypnikova ◽  
◽  
T.A. Romm ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Children’S Participation ◽  
Participation In Decision Making ◽  
Children's Participation

The purpose of this article is to present relevant methodological tools for studying the phenomenon of children's participation in decision-making based on the analysis of this process in foreign studies. The paper demonstrates a comparative analysis of the data obtained from foreign studies ,relying on the ideas of pedagogical methodology,. The authors have singled out approaches to considering the participation of children in decision-making, characterized the methods of organizing research, and presented the methodological specificity of studying participation.

scholarly journals Management and Governance Accountability to Children: Participation and Representation in Organisational Decision Making

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 197-226
Author(s):  
Claire O'Kane ◽  
Annabel Trapp ◽  
Paul Stephenson ◽  
Julia Smith-Brake
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Young People ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Enabling Factors ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Child Participation ◽  
Children’S Participation ◽  
Children’S Views ◽  
Children's Participation

Children’s participation and accountability to children are increasingly common aspirations of child-focused organisations; development agencies and research institutions frequently use young people’s advisory councils as one path to participation. A key challenge is to not only find meaningful ways to institutionalise children’s views as part of organisational decision making, but also to identify and address barriers to participation. This article presents the findings of a commissioned landscape assessment to identify good practices and lessons learned from child-focused agencies, in order to inform the operationalisation of children’s requests on programme improvements and accountability to children. The study was exploratory and qualitative. It included primary and secondary data collection, including a desk review, key informant interviews with adults and young people, and focus group discussions with young people. The findings showed common elements of organisational models of child participation and insights from children and young people on the types of decisions they want to influence, reasons why they should be heard, and how-to approaches to support their meaningful participation. Other findings focused on key challenges of children’s participation in governance, including adult mindsets, low capacity, and structural restrictions, and lessons learned on enabling factors, such as organisation-wide buy-in, and space and inclusion for children and young people. Further inquiry could inform the purpose, scope, and appropriateness of child participation in governance structures within child-focused organisations.

scholarly journals Participation of Children in Decision-making and their Psychosocial Wellbeing within the Child Protection System in St. Petersburg, Russia

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 643-656
Author(s):  
Вероника Александровна Одинокова ◽  
Майя Михайловна Русакова
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Limited Participation ◽  
Psychosocial Wellbeing ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
Children’S Participation ◽  
Children’S Homes ◽  
Participation In Decision Making ◽  
Children's Participation

The child’s right to be heard is a cornerstone of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Children growing up outside of their natural families particularly often find themselves in situations where this right should be fulfilled. In Russia, the child’s participation in decision-making at the time of their separation from their parents, and during their stay in the children’s homes, is often overlooked by both static monitoring and academic studies. In our study we raise the following research questions: To what extent is the right of a child separated from his or her natural parents to participate in decision-making respected? How does involvement in decision-making impact their psychosocial wellbeing? The study covered 215 children aged between ten and seventeen (mean age fourteen years) living in children’s homes in St. Petersburg. Our findings show that 42 % of children believe that they were not heard when the decisions affecting their interests were made. Talking with a social counsellor and having a trusted adult in the children’s home add to children’s perceptions that they have been heard. Limited participation in decision-making increases the odds of psychosocial difficulties in the binary logistic regression. We conclude that limited participation in decision-making negatively impacts the effectiveness of work with children and their psychosocial well-being. Since the degree and effectiveness of children’s participation depends primarily on the attitudes of professionals and their ability to create trusting relationships with children, a further increase in children’s participation will require a change in the professional paradigm of specialists. Specific methods for increasing the participation of children should be introduced in the daily practice of child welfare workers.

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