Editorial

In this final editorial for the year it is fitting to start with an article marking 25 years since the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was passed into law in the United Kingdom. McCafferty (2017) outlines how a child’s right to be heard in any decision making about them seems eminently appropriate, yet still poses challenges in many areas of professional practice, not least when it comes to the need for children to be protected from harm. Rather than bemoan the lack of child centred practice, the author draws upon a model by Lundy (2007) as a real-world tool that offers practical solutions to help social work/child protection workers overcome rather than avoid the identified challenges.

Developing this theme of children at risk of experiencing harm Svärd (2017) surveyed staff in the four largest Swedish children’s hospitals. She explores the reasons why staff might be less frequent reporters of child protection concerns relating to children rather than professionals in other settings, and highlights the seeming contradiction between the greater availability of guidelines and increased experience of nursing staff as resulting in them making fewer referrals. These findings have implications in how countries with mandatory reporting systems for child abuse and neglect might avoid the referral of inappropriate cases to social services by professionals anxious not to miss something.

In their article on the role of foster parents in supporting their fostered children to achieve academically, Skilbred, Iversen, and Moldestad (2017) interviewed 13 foster parents and 16 young adults who had completed, or were currently attending, university. Two main themes emerged from the interviews: the motivation and effort of the young person to do well; and the qualities of the environment within their foster home. In their article the authors explore the particular aspects of the foster home that seem most important, which they identify as the promotion of a feeling of belonging for the child in the foster home; core values such as taking school work seriously and giving of one’s best; and providing order and structure in the foster childrens’ lives. Underpinning all of this is the need to promote the stability of children’s placements.

In her article Mhongera (2017) explores the factors that young women cared for in institutions in Zimbabwe report as being important as they transition out of care. Similar to many other studies in other places, the young women report the need to be supported, feel prepared, and assisted with the practicalities, such as accommodation, training and employment opportunities, and finance. This interesting paper highlights the universality of needs, irrespective of the context and location of the individuals involved, while also highlighting the need to recognise that gender plays an important part.

Timonen-Kallio, Hämäläinen, and Laukkanen (2017) explore the issue of interprofessional collaboration in their article. They examine the challenges in incorporating and sharing expertise between the child protection and health care systems with particular regard to children in residential care. In doing so they highlight the unrealistic expectations that different professional groups have of each other, and the low status afforded to residential child care workers compared to mental health practitioners. Their work highlights a more fundamental issue about the value and place of children’s residential care in society.

In their article Botey et al. (2017) draw upon a large and diverse sample of adults in Alberta, Canada in 2007 and 2013 to explore the level of knowledge and understanding of child development among both parents and non-parents. Between the two dates the overall knowledge of child development deteriorated slightly, which, the authors hypothesise, may be related to reduced public, evidence-based education campaigns; increased corporate efforts to market toys and child-related products that may not be evidence informed; and a high level of parental stress and/or limited access to quality childcare.

Jordan and Coulter (2017) report that young children from socio-economically deprived areas are more likely to experience language difficulties than those living in more affluent areas. In their study they highlight the need to focus resources on children from socio-economically deprived areas, as children from such areas are not just at risk of poor language outcomes, but a range of other negative outcomes including poor academic performance, social exclusion and unemployment, and a greater propensity to offend. The authors argue that individual sessions with such children appear to offer the greatest likelihood of success.

This issue of the journal is drawn to a close with two resource reviews. The first, by Downes (2017) reviews Golding’s training manual on nurturing attachments for substitute carers of children. It provides a great resource for professionals seeking to support such carers through the delivery of training. The second review by Dill (2017) reviews the book by Canavan, Pinkerton and Dolan on family support policy, practice and theory. The third in a trilogy of work by the same authors, the book draws together a number of differing conceptualisations of what constitutes family support, and offers many insightful and positive reflections.

In conclusion, this issue of Child Care in Practice celebrates the diversity of knowledge about how children and young people can be supported to achieve and to maximise their potential in spite of the challenges they face. This is dependent upon others—peers, carers and professionals—and it is encouraging to note thet increasing understanding of what we can do to promote change and effect positive outcomes.