Children's Participation in Child-protection Processes as Experienced by Foster Children and Social Workers

Role and Success of Finnish Early Childhood Education and Care in Supporting Child Welfare Clients: Perspectives from Parents and Professionals

“…The study is part of the Needs, processes and outcomes in child welfare project (Vornanen et al 2011;Jaakola et al 2014;Pölkki et al 2012Pölkki et al , 2013 funded by the Academy of Finland. In the sub-study concerning ECEC and child welfare services, the permission to present a questionnaire to child welfare client parents and to interview day care ECEC staff and child welfare social workers was received from four municipalities.…”

Exploring the essence of enabling child participation within child protection services

“…Recent studies within child welfare conclude that child participation includes not just the child's opportunities to express his or her feelings and wishes and how much attention is paid to the child's perspectives but also the child's understanding of the reasons for the decision‐making process, the issues at stake, and the options available. Furthermore, it also includes having a say on how participation should be given form (Pert et al, ; Pölkki, Vornanen, Pursiainen, & Riikonen, ; van Bijleveld et al, ). For instance, the study of Pölkki et al () of children who were placed into foster care showed that although participation in matters concerning them is very significant to children, they do not always want to be active participants in the formal meetings.…”

“…So besides the difficulties that case managers experience in the facilitation of child protection in daily practice (van Bijleveld et al ; Pölkki et al, , Sanders & Mace, ), the level of knowledge of what participation entails and the attitude towards participation seem to be crucial aspects when trying to put child participation within child protection services into practice. However, in these studies, case managers themselves hardly mention their own understanding and attitude as barriers, which raise questions about awareness and validity point of view.…”

A lattice of participation: reflecting on examples of children's and young people's collective engagement in influencing social welfare policies and practices

“…Whilst there is a growing body of research on children and young people's individual participation in child welfare settings where children contribute to making decisions about their own care plans (Pölkki, Vornanen, Pursiainen & Riikonen, 2012;Vis, Holtan & Thomas, 2012) there is relatively little focused on collective participation (Seim & Slettebø, 2011) in which groups of children seek change in the practices or policy that affect them. Thomas and Percy-Smith (2011) suggest that formal collective participation initiatives for children in alternative care in England are more likely to lead to changes in young people themselves than in policy.…”

“…Robin (2010) notes that although there are notable examples of peer-led initiatives involving older young people, collective participation opportunities in child protection in France are in their infancy. In Finland, collective participation structures are rare and underdeveloped which may be one reason why children in foster care have reported having only minor possibilities to influence matters concerning them and their lives (Pölkki et al, 2012).…”