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English government policy advocates providing greater choice-making opportunities for service users and their families. However, there is a gap in our knowledge about the role family, especially parents, and also friends play in the choice-making processes of disabled young people. Drawing on data from an English longitudinal study, this article begins to address this gap by exploring disabled young people's shared choice-making with parents and peers. Using qualitative data from 27 interviews with disabled young people with degenerative conditions, it demonstrates that young people want to participate in making choices about their own lives but choices are often made with other people, especially parents and peers. Processes of choice-making are diverse. Parents and/or peers are involved at different stages and in varying degrees with young people depending on personal circumstances. For example, circumstances such as young people's age and experience and the type of choice and its perceived seriousness. Recognizing this complexity and the importance of a holistic approach to choice-making, the article concludes with some practice suggestions.

UK government policy advocates involving children in decisions about their lives. However, disabled children are often marginalized and not consulted, especially those with learning and communication impairments. Drawing on an ongoing English Government funded longitudinal study exploring different groups of service users' choices, this article demonstrates the important contribution that qualitative research methods, especially non-traditional methods, can procure when working with young people who are non-verbal or have limited speech. Working with young people with life-limiting conditions raises some specific challenges for researchers. Here, adapting project wide materials and research methods in order to gain some thematic continuity across different service user groups. Some of these considerations and challenges will be discussed, especially the development of non-verbal forms of communication (talking mats TM). Practical experiences, both positive and negative will be examined. The article concludes by considering some wider implications of using symbols based methods for future research and how these methods can be used across disciplines and by practitioners in their everyday work.

ABSTRACTThe family in late modernity faces demographic change. However, it is still apparent that intergenerational relationships and exchanges of resources are valued. There is a growing literature on the important role that grandparents play in their children's families. In contrast, there is limited research exploring the support grandparents provide to families with disabled children. This is an important gap in our knowledge, as families with disabled children frequently face additional caring responsibilities and emotional demands. From the studies that do exist, it is clear that grandparents' support to families with disabled children is generally valued. However, the literature remains partial: past studies are small‐scale, focused upon parents' perceptions of support (especially mother's), and frequently based upon North American data. Recognizing these limitations and the fact that grandparents themselves have support needs which require consideration, this paper identifies key areas where important issues remain unanswered and further research is required. It argues that research is needed to begin untangling the different support needs of parents, grandparents and other family members, and the different effects of grandparent support that different family members' experience. Exploration of grandparents' own support needs also indicates the need for wider policy and service consideration.

Summary English policy and practice guidance recommends local authorities offer personal budgets to all adults eligible for social care support using transparent and equitable allocation systems which maximise choice and control for users. This includes family and other unpaid carers as carers in England are entitled to their own personal budget. The Care Act 2014 strengthens carers' rights and places duties on authorities to assess and meet carers eligible support needs. However, little is known about how authorities assess and allocate resources to carers. This article explores this information gap drawing on data from a survey of English local authorities in two regions completed by carers lead officers and complemented by follow-up telephone interviews with a sub-sample of these officers. Findings Survey and interview results demonstrate wide practice variations around how social workers assess, calculate and distribute resources to carers. There is little uniformity across authorities. Carer eligibility criteria are used but thresholds vary and are often unclear. Most grants/personal budgets are allocated as single annual payments but how the level of these grant/personal budgets are calculated varies with little standardisation. Applications The article develops the evidence base surrounding resource allocation to carers through carer grants/personal budgets. Findings are timely as the Care Act 2014 will strengthen carers' rights alongside the continuing personalisation of adult social care. Discussing local authority policy and practice around key objectives of equity, transparency and carer choice, implications for future social work practice and its development are considered in light of the Care Act 2014 .

Despite the long-term strategic shift to personalisation, with its emphasis on choice and control for those who use public services, there has been relatively little policy consideration of family carers' choice within personalisation. The relationship between carers and personalisation also remains under-researched. This article is based on a review of existing knowledge around personalisation. It shows that carer choice is highly complex, not least because of the multifaceted and paradoxical nature of the concept of choice itself. The review demonstrates that choice for carers within personalisation is no less complex and is subject to new and overlapping variables which do not necessarily lead to improved choice for carers. In light of the limited empirical evidence about carers, choice and personalisation, the introduction of the Care Act 2014, and the importance of frontline practice in securing choice for carers, recommendations are made for future research and social work policy and practice.

ABSTRACTThe Integrated Children's System (ICS) is premised on a single approach to assessment/review, ideally providing a more coherent, comprehensive and efficient system of electronic information recording and sharing among different groups of practitioners. Despite its holistic aims for all children in need, questions have been raised about the use of ICS with certain groups of children, especially those who do not follow normative patterns, such as disabled children. This paper explores the introduction of ICS with disabled children and their families within four pilot authorities in England and Wales. Drawing on interviews and questionnaires with 16 social workers and 22 families experiencing assessment/reviews under the new ICS, this paper suggests that important questions and concerns regarding the appropriateness and usefulness for disabled children of the ICS remain, especially the use of 'standardized' exemplars. Five disability‐specific areas of concern are identified, and their implications are considered.

Many discourses surround the concept of 'service quality', however, it continues to remain partial and ambiguous. This paper seeks to unpack 'quality' in services for disabled children and their families. Theoretical models are initially reviewed and then considered in relation to key policy guidelines, empirical data drawing upon parents' and children's experiences of 'quality' in services are presented. This paper demonstrates the many different levels within the concept of 'quality' and highlights the importance of recognising and respecting that children and parents frequently value different aspects of 'quality'. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Introduction : Young people, risk and leisure : an overview / Robin Bunton, Eileen Green and Wendy Mitchell -- Pleasure, aggression and fear : the driving experience of young Sydneysiders / Deborah Lupton -- Living in my street : adolescents' perceptions of health and social risks / Kate Gillen, Alison Guy and Maura Banim -- Risky identities : young women, street prostitution and 'doing motherhood' / Eileen Green -- The labour market inclusion and exclusion of young people in rural labour markets in Scotland / Fred Cartmel -- From policy to place : theoretical explorations of gender-leisure relations in everyday life / Cara Aitchison -- Youth, leisure travel and fear of crime : an Australian study / John Tulloch -- Streetwise or safe? Girls negotiating time and space / Tamara Seabrook and Eileen Green -- Sites of contention : young people, community and leisure space / Anne Foreman -- Risk, gender and youthful bodies / Robin Bunton, Paul Crawshaw and Eileen Green -- Risk, motherhood and children's play spaces : the importance of young mothers' experiences and risk management strategies / Wendy Mitchell -- Risking it? Young mothers' experiences of motherhood and leisure / Rebecca Watson -- The 'logic of practice' in the risky community : the potential of the work of Pierre Bourdieu for theorising young men's risk-taking / Paul Crawshaw -- Every good boy deserves football / Simon Pratt and Elizabeth Burn

Summary The policy of personalisation in English adult social care prioritises choice and control by service users over the support they receive. Carers also have rights to assessments and support, but these rights have developed separately, so interdependencies between carers and service users may be overlooked. Moreover, it may be difficult to reconcile these divergent policies in routine practice. This article reports findings from a study examining the roles played by carers in England in the processes of assessment, support planning and management of personal budgets for disabled and older people. The study was conducted between January 2011 and February 2013. It involved a survey of 16 adult social care departments across 2 English regions, and interviews with personalisation and carers lead officers in three local authorities. The Framework approach was used to manage the data, and analysis was done thematically. Findings Practice was fragmented and inconsistent. Carers were reported to be involved in service users' assessments, and also asked about their willingness and ability to continue caring, but not necessarily about their own needs. Separate carers' assessments were reported to be usually offered, but take-up was low and lead officers' opinions about their value varied. Any help given by carers reduced the level of service users' personal budgets, but there was no evidence that carers' own needs (as identified in carers' assessments) were taken into account. Applications Greater clarity and consistency is needed, especially the linking of service users' and carers' assessments and finding appropriate ways to meet both. These changes will become increasingly urgent with the implementation of the 2014 Care Act.