Suchergebnisse

In this issue of the Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care, the first of the 2015 volume, we publish two peer-reviewed articles, two short reflections on aspects of practice, the first article in a new category which is intended to highlight the basis for doctoral research, two book reviews, and a note of the highlights in the recently published Scottish Government 'Children's Social Work Statistics 2015 (incorporating the Children Looked After Statistics)'.

The European Commission Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO) commissioned SOS Children's Villages International to undertake case studies of arrangements for 'alternative child care' in six non-European countries across three continents to help inform the EU's future strategy for provision of support for children in countries outside Europe. This report is a case study of one of the six countries, Nigeria. A companion report provides a summary of alternative child care across Sub-Saharan Africa. The results of the regional reports and case studies are synthesised in a report entitled Towards the Right Care for Children: Orientations for reforming alternative care systems. Africa, Asia, Latin America (European Union, Brussels, 2017).

Scottish local authorities and the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) were asked under FOI legislation about action, taken or planned, to support looked after young people to vote in the referendum on Scottish independence. All 32 local authorities and the SPS responded during January and February 2014. Two local authorities said the information was not available. Responses were classified as follows: direct action already taken to support young people (six responses); indirect action already taken to inform staff (eight responses); direct action planned to support young people (19 responses); indirect action planned to inform staff (25 responses). Only nine local authorities had taken some action. Of the action planned, indirect action was the most common. Some authorities appeared to have left out young people looked after 'at home' and formerly looked after young people from their plans for support. Although less common, several local authorities described carefully planned approaches to encourage looked after young people to exercise their democratic rights. As well as giving examples of action taken and proposed by corporate parents, the report provides sources of information and support.

The research briefing is presented in the context of Scottish government policy in relation to widening access to higher education, in particular for students from a looked after background. The briefing reports findings from a review of the outcome agreements made between the Scottish Funding Council and Scotland's 19 HEIs in respect of statements about widening access to students from a looked after background. It also reports the findings of requests for information from HEIs made under FOI procedures about applications from students from a looked after background, offers made and enrolments. The conclusions include these: institutional outcome agreements in 2012-13 mostly appear to lack detail, and are arguably limited in ambition; Despite the existence of the UCAS voluntary declaration, not all HEIs have used this to collect data.

The Learning with Care report (HMI and SWSI, 2001) made seven criticisms in relation to the provision of education for looked after children in Scotland. The most recent report, Looked After Children and Young People: We can and must do better (Scottish Executive, 2007), contains 19 actions for improvement. Graham Connelly and Mono Chakrabarti examine whether the distinctiveness of the Scottish political landscape has the potential to lead to improvements in tackling the deficits in the educational experience and attainment of looked after children and young people clearly acknowledged by the authors of both reports. Their article considers the recent history of political concern and asks whether things are getting better, concluding that while there is only limited improvement, the climate is more supportive and more emphatic in its expectations of the young people and the professionals who support them.

This desk review is part of a wider study commissioned to SOS Children's Villages International by the European Commission. The overall study aims to map the issue of alternative care and deinstitutionalization in countries in Asia, South and Central America, and Africa. It also seeks to increase the evidence on child protection, alternative care and deinstitutionalization and on how this can be addressed, in order to potentially inform future initiatives in these continents, at country or regional level. The study comprises three continental desk reviews and six field-based case studies. This report is the desk review on alternative care and deinstitutionalisation in Africa. It is accompanied by two country case studies: one focussing on Nigeria and one on Uganda. The results of the regional reports and case studies are synthesised in a report entitled Towards the Right Care for Children: Orientations for reforming alternative care systems. Africa, Asia, Latin America (European Union, Brussels, 2017).

ABSTRACTObjectivesChildren that are 'looked after' include those that are accommodated in foster, kinship and residential care placements, as well as those at home on compulsory supervision. They have poorer physical and mental health than their peers and there are concerns about the relatively high levels of untreated morbidity. Oral health and access to dental services among Looked After Children (LAC) has received limited attention to date. The objective of this study was to compare the oral health and access to dental services of children who are looked after by the state, with comparable children in the general population.
ApproachSchool and Social Work datasets were able to be linked using the Scottish Exchange of Data (ScotXed) Unit. This in turn was linked with health data making use of the Scottish national record-linkage system provided by the NHS eDRIS team for the FARR Institute Scotland. All of the following datasets used in this study are complete national datasets for the time periods noted. School Pupil Census 2012: a census of children in local authority primary and secondary schools that provides each child's age, sex and socioeconomic status as measured by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD). The other datasets cover the period 2008-2012: LAC- all children with social work referrals for various types of placement; registration with dentists; hospital discharge data for all episodes of tooth extraction; National Dental Inspection Programme (NDIP) data from Primary 1 and Primary 7 school years (dental decay). The LAC group were compared to their peers by logistic regression adjusted by SIMD, using remote access to the National Safe Haven.
ResultsThere were 633204 subjects in the study group (10927 LAC, 622280 nonLAC). Ages ranged from four to 17 years (mean 12 LAC and 10 nonLAC); with 53% male for LAC and 51% nonLAC; and 42% in the most deprived SIMD level for LAC and 21% for non-LAC. The subjects in the LAC group were more likely to have dental decay at Primary 1, odds-ratio (OR) 2.93 (2.55, 3.38), and Primary 7, OR 1.81 (1.68, 1.94). LAC subjects were less likely to be registered with a dentist, OR 0.50 (0.43, 0.59), and more likely to have teeth extracted, OR 1.50 (1.40, 1.60). All tests p<0.001.
ConclusionLooked after children are more likely to have dental problems and less likely to use dental services than their peers, after adjustment for socioeconomic status.