Growing up in care is not just a part of childhood, but can have ongoing impacts across a person's life. Organised thematically to allow comparison of different initiatives, this book considers the range of responses to adult care-leavers in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the UK. Initiatives examined include public inquiries, acknowledgements, redress schemes, specialist support services, and access to personal records and family reunification programs. Featuring detailed case studies, this is an excellent international source book for practitioners and policy makers in social work and social care.

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.

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.

Serving as a companion to Growing Up Global, this book from the National Research Council explores how the transition to adulthood is changing in developing countries in light of globalization and what the implications of these changes might be for those responsible for designing youth policies and programs. Presenting a detailed series of studies, this volume both complements its precursor and makes for a useful contribution in its own right. It should be of significant interest to scholars, leaders of civil society, and those charged with designing youth policies and programs.

Tying in to a nationwide joint campaign by the Evangelical Alliance and Care for the Family, Krish Kandiah wants us all to take seriously Jesus's call to 'suffer the little children' by engaging with the needs of the many thousands of children up and down the country who are in care and whom the church could and should be helping. Krish and his wife Miriam have adopted and fostered children themselves and their experience - and that of the many others in this book - is very different from the popular myth which suggests social services seek to prevent Christians from getting involved. Krish argues that whatever the state's stance may be, it is a part of our calling as God's church to get involved where it's hardest, and to help these children out of the tough realities they find themselves in. Filled with stories from people who have adopted or were adopted themselves, alongside practical advice on how it all works and the challenges that will come, this book makes a compelling case that the church can and must make a difference in these children's lives, and asks us all to consider our response.

At present only one child in a hundred goes to university from care. The findings of the research reported here suggest that, given the chance, far more of these young people have the potential to benefit from higher education. Local authorities, schools and universities should work together to raise aspirations and provide the financial, practical and emotional support that is needed. Going to University from Care is the final report of the five-year 'By Degrees' study, which followed three successive groups of young people entering higher education from a background in local authority care. The research was commissioned by the Frank Buttle Trust, which has a long history of providing grant aid to children in adversity and those lacking family support, and particularly of promoting their education, including supporting students and trainees in further and higher education. 'By Degrees' is designed to influence policy and practice at national and local levels.