The child perspective, i.e. an adult understanding and viewing of a child, is frequently being discussed. However, it is open to individual interpretation as the concept is only vaguely defined. This paper focuses on factors characterising the child perspective held by adults in an organisation which treats and supports adults and children who…

In social work with children and families, the use of the articles of the UNCRC to inform our understanding of parents and parenting is often overshadowed by the necessary focus on the UNCRC articles as they pertain to the rights of children. Yet, the UNCRC is crucial to our understanding of parenthood because it both defines the role and…

Objective: In Northern Ireland, it is widely agreed that mental health service provision for children and young people is inadequate and that there is a need for much greater prioritisation and strategic planning in this area. Successive Governments have made commitments to improve services, and although progress has been made, considerable reform…

This article suggests that there exists a dichotomy within social work related to listening to the voice of the child, contributing to a diminution of social works practical, ethical and legal obligation to enact Article12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The article gives an in-depth exploration of this…

The paper focuses on the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), which sets standards for children's care, development and education in England from birth to five years old. Analysing the EYFS, as comprised of knowledge and discourses that inform, and are informed by broader cultural understandings of childhood and development, we argue that the way…

Family Group Conferences (FGCs) are a family-led approach to social care decision making. The fundamental philosophy behind FGCs is that families are the experts on their own situations and as such should lead decision-making. The model advocates that children should be at the centre of decisions about them and should be supported to have their…

Article 12 (1) of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child sets out the right of children who are capable of forming their own views to freely express them in matters that affect them. Such views should be considered when making decisions, paying attention to the child's age and maturity. This study explored children's…

This systematic review aimed to identify how children's right to health, connected to the principles of protection, promotion, and participation, and from the perspectives of children, parents, and professionals in preschool, school, and healthcare has been empirically demonstrated by international scholars between 1989 and 2021. Following the…

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…

Research on the intersection between migration management and child protection is limited and, yet, contradictions between these two domains and ambivalence in the area of child migrants' rights across the developed world have already been highlighted. Based on fieldwork with policymakers and service providers in Albania, a middle-to-high income…

There has been increased recognition of the importance of hearing the views of children and young people in and from care about the services and decisions that affect their lives. The emphasis on young people's voices aims to give weight to, and raise awareness of, their experiences and outcomes, and the need for policy and practice improvements.…

This article presents critical commentary on the relationship between wider policy in Ireland for children, and the practice of social workers and social care workers who work with children on the ground level. An overview of the current policy context for children is achieved through a focused commentary on the literature. This operates around…

The social service sector in New Zealand is undergoing significant change with the Minister responsible for introducing a new Ministry for Vulnerable Children (now Ministry for Children) signalling a commitment to practice being child-centred and trauma-informed in the new era. There is no shared understanding of these terms or what they will mean…

Recent years have witnessed a gradual increase in international research on the effects of parental incarceration on families and prisoners both in the short, medium and long term. However, the rights of children with a parent in prison is a subject which, in the Irish context at least, has been ill considered to date by policy and law makers.…

The historical legacy and the changing landscape of adoption in Ireland are currently garnering much attention. However, to date, the specifics of the changes have not yet been presented. This article provides a detailed numerical overview of who is being adopted and who is adopting in Ireland. The compilation of the available administrative data…