An authoritative text highlighting the key issues affecting young people taking the step from leaving care to adulthood. Covers relevant research, policy and practice, and advises on how best to understand, prepare and support young people.
How can social workers and agencies best support young people as they make the transition from care to independent living? This authoritative study investigates the successes and failures of care services for young people, identifying factors that hinder effective transition from care and the types of support that help to promote positive life choices. Analysing current policy and drawing on the findings of past research, the authors explore the experiences of young people leaving the care of three very different Scottish local authorities to demonstrate how support works in practice. They address the impact of throughcare and aftercare services, and argue for a more gradual transition towards independence, combined with more consistent and ongoing support after young people leave care. This book draws on the Scottish context to offer valuable lessons that are important reading for all students and practitioners in the fields of social care and social policy, and other professionals interested in the development of childcare practice.
The transition to adulthood is a longer and more complex process than it was just a few decades ago, and a growing number of youth and young adults experience significant challenges in the establishment of an autonomous and independent lifestyle when compared to previous generations. Successful high school graduation followed by employment is no longer the inevitable trajectory for young people, especially in the current socio-economic context where jobs are less accessible and more demanding in terms of specialized skills and higher academic qualifications. Unable to rely on family for emotional and financial support, vulnerable youth, who grow up in substitute care, are especially effected by the lengthening of this transition to adulthood. The dismal outcomes for youth growing up in care are by now well-documented, and more recently, a range of models have been proposed to help advance our understanding of these outcomes and how to forestall them. However, the literature on leaving care has long suffered from the absence of theory that could guide meaningful intervention. In response to this gap, Leaving Care and the Transition to Adulthood offers a comprehensive overview of the newest contributions to this area in relation to theory, in addition to the Theory of Emerging Adulthood, while also featuring cutting-edge research and best practices that support adjustment across a range of domains for this population. International in scope, this book focuses on bringing together major advances that span the literature on transitioning to adulthood within the care system, offering a unique and important contribution to the field.
Each year more than 25,000 youth age out of the American foster care system to face uncertain futures as young adults. Many of them have experienced the trauma of abuse, neglect, disrupted family relationships, and multiple foster care placements. The past two decades have seen increased funding and services in a society-wide attempt to mitigate the effects of such childhood adversity, but a consistent pattern of loss and broken attachments adds up. Development and education are severely compromised. A quarter of youth experience homelessness after exiting care; 25-50% will not complete high school, and only 3-6% will graduate college. Four years after leaving care, less than half are employed, and their earnings remain well below the poverty line. Rates of mental health disorders, early pregnancy and parenthood, and involvement in the criminal justice system are all heightened. Youth Leaving Foster Care is the first comprehensive text to focus on youth emerging from care, offering a new theoretical framework to guide programs, policies, and services. The book argues that understanding infant, child, and adolescent development; attachment experiences and disruptions; and the impacts of unresolved trauma and loss on development are critical to improving long-term outcomes. It provides an overview of the foster care context, detailed discussion of the effects of maltreatment on development from infancy through young adulthood, and common mental health problems and treatment recommendations. It includes a discussion of delinquency and the juvenile justice system, as well as issues facing pregnant and parenting youth, LGBT youth, and youth with disabilities. Presenting the best practices in transitional living programs and policy and research recommendations, this crucial guide also reviews and summarizes the latest research, which are enhanced with illustrative case vignettes. Each mental health and program chapter concludes with key practice principles reflecting the relationship-based approach. Presenting a multidimensional, integrated perspective that gives greater consideration to psychological and interpersonal needs, this vital guide offers an approach that will strengthen the capacity of youth leaving care to transition into successful adult lives.
The journey to adulthood is a big step for all young people. However, for young people leaving care it may be far more difficult, coping with major changes in their lives and at a younger age, especially if they lack preparation and support. Young People Leaving Care explores the journey from care to adulthood through the main challenges these young people face: in being in settled accommodation, in fulfilling their potential in education, employment or training, and in achieving and maintaining good health and a positive sense of wellbeing. For each of these pathways, the book provides a comprehensive review of relevant research, how young people might be best supported, and how the services they receive have the potential to increase resilience and boost their chances of enjoying a fulfilled life as a young adult. This is an essential book for all those who work with young people from care, including social workers, personal advisers, counsellors, teachers, policy makers, researchers and students in the field of child welfare.
This book contains extensive practice information, original research material and policy findings about young people leaving public care and the work of leaving care projects. Each chapter contains good practice and policy examples, and the book concludes with a critical analysis of key practice, policy, and theoretical issues.
This book challenges and revises existing ways of thinking about leaving care policy, practice and research at regional, national and international levels. Bringing together contributors from fifteen countries, it covers a range of topical policy and practice issues within national, international or comparative contexts. These include youth justice, disability, access to higher education, the role of advocacy groups, ethical challenges and cultural factors. In doing so it demonstrates that, whilst young people are universally a vulnerable group, there are vast differences in their experiences of out-of-home care and transitions from care, and their shorter and longer-term outcomes. Equally, there are significant variations between jurisdictions in terms of the legislative, policy and practice supports and opportunities made available to them. This significant edited collection is essential reading for all those who work with young people from care, including social workers, counsellors, and youth and community practitioners, as well as for students and scholars of child welfare.
The transition from care into adulthood is a difficult step for any young person, but young people leaving care have a high risk of social exclusion, both in terms of material disadvantage and marginalisation. In Young People's Transitions from Care to Adulthood leading academics gather together the latest international research relating to the transition of young people leaving care, outlining and comparing the range of legal and policy frameworks, welfare regimes and innovative practice across 16 countries. The book also highlights the variations that exist between different groups leaving care. Featuring key messages for policy and practice, this book will give academics, practitioners and policymakers valuable insights into how to encourage resilience and improve outcomes for care leavers.
While there is much literature on the experience of growing up in an orphanage, very few books examine life after institutional care. After the Orphanage is the first book to address how care-leavers adjust to life in the outside world.
The Care Matters White Paper (Cm. 7137, 2007, ISBN 9780101713726) and the resultant Children and Young Persons Act 2008 (ISBN 9780105423089) showed the priority the Government has put on improving outcomes for looked-after children. But the Committee cautions that success will not flow automatically from new legislation or guidance. Previous programmes of substantial reform and investment have left outcomes for looked-after children still lagging unacceptably far behind those for other children. Inconsistency in practice and underperformance against current standards show that there are significant underlying challenges to implementation of the new raft of measures. The report examines the crucial elements of: relationships - stable reliable bonds with key individuals are fundamental to children's security and development; placements - are in short supply and local authorities need more support to increase availability; the performance framework - the quality of decision-making, of relationships, and of children's experiences of care. Three themes run through the Committee's conclusions. First is the importance of a well-trained, fairly paid, well-supported workforce in delivering the care. Secondly is how local authorities can come to approximate more closely the care of birth parents. Thirdly, there is the voice of the child and more independent support is needed for children to express their views. The care system should not be seen as a sanction against failing parents, nor blight children's future prospects. Care must be an integral part of a continuum of effective family support services for families under stress and not functioning well. Parents should expect that children in care will have stability and personalised attention rather than a life ruled by uncertainty and bureaucracy and will have access to all the health and therapeutic care that they need to enjoy life and develop into independent adults.