Meeting the Challenge?: Young People Leaving Care in Northern Ireland

by Pinkerton, John; McCrea, Ross

• ISBN13: 9781840143287
• ISBN10: 1840143282
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-01-01
• Publisher: Ashgate Pub Co

Summary

Preparation for leaving care and aftercare support, are increasingly important concerns for child care practitioners, policy makers and researchers in the UK. There are now practice imperatives and a clear legal mandate for work in both areas. This Northern Ireland study represents an important contribution to the theoretical debate surrounding these issues and offers a much-needed large-scale empirical study.Key concepts relating to adolescence, childcare careers and youth transition underpin this investigation of a broad range of young people leaving state care. Detailed information is provided about:* Their personal characteristics.* The main features of their care careers.* Their experiences of leaving care and aftercare support.* Their ability to cope up to two years into aftercare.By combining theoretical material and empirical findings, this book explains how a high quality leaving care service may work to meet the challenge of youth transitions in contemporary Britain.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. vii
List of Tables	p. viii
Acknowledgements	p. ix
Recognising the Challenge
Introduction	p. 1
The Northern Ireland context	p. 2
Policy and practice	p. 3
Legislation	p. 5
Research aims and objectives	p. 8
Outline of the book	p. 10
Youth Policy and Leaving Care
Introduction	p. 12
Needs and services	p. 13
Young people in Northern Ireland	p. 16
Process as care career	p. 18
Outcomes and the transition to adulthood	p. 22
Conclusion	p. 25
Methodology
Introduction	p. 26
Postal survey	p. 27
Follow up interviews	p. 32
General comments	p. 35
The Leaving Care Population
Introduction	p. 37
Personal characteristics	p. 38
Care careers	p. 39
Experience on leaving care	p. 56
Summary--a grounded model of leaving care	p. 65
The Provided for Group
Introduction	p. 72
Personal characteristics	p. 72
Care careers	p. 73
Experience on leaving care	p. 77
Coping at six months	p. 77
Coping two years on	p. 84
Summary of experiences two years on	p. 93
The Preparation and After Care Received
Introduction	p. 95
Preparation	p. 96
After care	p. 100
Context of the work	p. 106
Duration of after care support, moves and types of accommodation	p. 110
Results of the work	p. 112
Summary	p. 114
Meeting the Challenge?
Introduction	p. 115
Existing needs and services	p. 115
Developing services	p. 119
Final comment	p. 124
Bibliography	p. 126
Index	p. 130
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