Care Matters: Transforming the Lives of Children and Young People in Care

This Green Paper was launched by the Department for Education and Skills on  Monday 9 October 2006, and consultation closes on Monday 15 January 2007. The summary below was prepared by Nicola Hilliard, Head of Library and Information Services at the National Children’s Bureau, and we are grateful to the NCB for permission to reprint … Read more

“What does this celebration mean?”

As you may know, the Jewish Passover meal has a special place and role for the youngest child: he or she asks father or grandfather to tell them what the celebration means.  And that question unlocks the key to a story that goes back through generations and millennia to a time when the Hebrews were … Read more

Parental Alienation Syndrome Leading

An unsafe and unsound theory of human behaviour which is leading to Perverse Reversal of Child Custody placing children at serious risk of harm Introduction Parental Alienation Syndrome [PAS] and PAS-type thinking has gained gradual credence in some Courts and among some psychologists and social workers in the U.K., the U.S.A, and in Australia. It … Read more

Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children

The dramatic increase in the number of unaccompanied minors has created two distinct issues for these children, as well as for immigration officers, judges, social workers, and advocates. These groups are forced to wrestle, first, with the problems posed by unaccompanied minors’ care and custody, and second, with the evaluation of any legal claims they … Read more

Connecting people

One of the cleverest brand slogans must surely be that of Nokia, Connecting People. So often, other groups and organisations trying to define and distil their vision and mission statement into a pithy phrase find themselves coming up with exactly these two words.  Well, just to reassure you, this column is not an advert for … Read more

Keeping Control

There has been an increasing emphasis on children’s rights for the last twenty or thirty years. We have got well away from the era when children were meant to be “seen and not heard”, when adults took all the significant decisions and when children were generally not encouraged to think for themselves too much or … Read more

In Care : Sharon : 2

Sharon and Caitlin had been in care together. This is the second episode of Sharon’ side of the story, following Caitlin’s version which we published earlier. For the last episode, click here. We went into the smart little house, and Caitlin put the kettle on and busied herself putting the shopping away. Everything seemed so … Read more

Talent – Young People in Action

Introduction Frontier Youth Trust (FYT) and Worth Unlimited are two organisations that work with and for young people on the margins of society. We have joined forces to create a trust fund that will be controlled by young people – for young people and which will enable them to act on their own concerns. We … Read more