Every child mattered in England: but what matters to children?

‘Every Child Matters' under New Labour provided a framework for services for young children's care and education. It was pushed aside by the Conservative-led coalition and replaced by ‘More Great Childcare'. The UK as a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, therefore has obligations for legislation, policy and curriculum, specifically with regard to children's rights and participation. On the 25th anniversary of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child, in practice there may be different levels of participation employed to engage children's views in the development of policy about them. This project sets out to ask children about what ‘matters' to them. Ninety finalist Early Childhood Studies students worked as co-researchers in this project. Five themes are discussed highlighting the powerful thoughts and ideas of children. A range of ‘child-friendly’ methods were used to collect data from children including role-play, interviews, drawings and artefacts, and story-telling.     

Adolescents' Experiences of the Right to Play and Leisure in Northern Ireland

Under Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, every child under the age of 18 has the right to engage in age-appropriate play and leisure activities. Drawing on the qualitative findings of a wider review of children's rights in Northern Ireland, this article examines the degree to which adolescents in Northern Ireland are currently able to enjoy this right. The data presented in the article are primarily based on the views of young people, as expressed in focus group discussions with their peers, although this is at times contextualised by the contributions of adult participants and the findings of an in-depth policy and literature review. The article argues that young people's right to play and leisure is not currently adequately recognised within Northern Ireland, noting the impact of the increasing demonisation and marginalisation of youth upon both this and their accompanying right to protection. The article concludes with a consideration of the potential implications of the current failure to afford young people adequate and appropriate play and leisure opportunities, calling on the State party to urgently deliver on the commitments it made in ratifying the Convention.     

Children's rights and education

In the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), which was ratified by the U.K. Government in 1991, children's rights were categorised into three types - provision, protection and participation. In this paper only provision and participation in relation to children and young people in school will be discussed. Since education in Northern Ireland is compulsory for children aged four to 16 this paper concentrates on that group and not on the age range defined by the U.N. Convention as 'child' which extends to age 18.     

Health rights in secondary schools: student and staff perspectives

This paper examines the perspectives of secondary school students and staff about the extent to which young people's health rights are catered for at school. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the concept of Health-Promoting Schools encourage the provision of healthy school environments. A postal survey of secondary schools in New Zealand elicited responses from 821 Year 11 (15-16 year olds) students and 438 staff in 107 schools. Most students and staff reported that sources of health advice were available at their schools, but only a minority of students saw these sources as accessible or trustworthy. In every area of health promotion, students saw information and advice as less accessible than staff did. Most staff and students identified mental health problems such as depression as a source of concern in schools, but only a quarter of students (compared to half of staff) thought that this topic was covered during classtime. Students in lower-income schools reported the school environment as slightly less healthy than did students in high-income schools. The paper concludes that schools and policy makers should seek the voices and opinions of young people in order to improve effectiveness in catering for health rights.     

Child poverty as public policy: direct provision and asylum seeker children in the Republic of Ireland

This paper evaluates responses to asylum seeker children in Ireland from a child poverty perspective and from that of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It draws upon research undertaken in early 2001 on behalf of the Irish Refugee Council among asylum seeker families with children in Cork, Limerick and Ennis on their experiences of poverty and social exclusion. The research was primarily qualitative. Interviews with adult members of households and some children were triangulated with data on benefit entitlements and take-up, household consumption, accommodation and amenities. The research sought to ascertain levels of income poverty and material deprivation. A range of indictors of child poverty and social exclusion were also employed. The research found that asylum seeker children experienced extreme income poverty, material deprivation, housing deprivation and social exclusion in considerable part due to the imposition of a system of lesser welfare entitlements, known as “direct provision”, introduced in April 2000. The paper argues that state-fostered social exclusion of asylum seeker children resulting from “direct provision” is contrary to Ireland's obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the goals of the National Children's Strategy and the goals of the National Anti-Poverty Strategy.     

Listening To Children, Speaking For Children: Health and Social Services Complaints and Child Advocacy

Health and Personal Social Services are required to respond positively and effectively to complaints from service users. This paper discusses the importance of such complaints systems in upholding children's rights, and in particular Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It outlines the nature of some of the advocacy services available to children and young people who may wish to make a complaint about their treatment within Northern Ireland Health and Personal Social Services. It then moves on to discuss some possible future developments, and in particular speculates on the potential role of the Northern Ireland Children's Commissioner in investigating complaints concerning the care and treatment of children in Northern Ireland health and personal social services.     

Young People's Views on Communities and Sectarianism in Northern Ireland

Current legislation, such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), the Children (NI) Order (1995) and the Northern Ireland Act (1998), places an increasing emphasis on directly consulting children and young people in Northern Ireland. Within this context, there is a growing interest in the authentic views of children and young people on sectarianism. This paper discusses the process and findings from three Young National Children's Bureau talk-shops that provides insight into young people's views on growing up in communities in Northern Ireland and their experiences of sectarianism.     

Reporting the Rhetoric,Implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as Represented in Ireland's Second Report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Ireland's second periodic report to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) presents the government's case that it is succeeding in protecting and promoting the rights of all children in Ireland. This article presents a critical discourse analysis of the government's Report to the CRC. Using a refined critical discourse analysis model, based on the framework proposed by Chouliaraki and Fairclough, the linguistic structure of the Report is examined alongside consideration of the wider sociopolitical context in which it exists. The Report is itself a promotional genre. It lists legislative change, strategy plans and other policy activity intended to have an impact on children's rights. This promotional genre is realised in the Report through drawing on the language necessary to sell the government as successful in implementation of the Convention, to the CRC. Through adherence to the structured language of reporting, in tandem with the careful positioning of paragraphs, the report serves to circumvent the absences of legislation and provisions that directly influence and impact on children's rights. Thus, the analysis reported in this article confirms the view that much of the discourse is rhetorical. Nevertheless, the Report generally represents the government as progressing in the field of implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This has led to an assumption that the reporting mechanisms of the CRC may allow for such rhetorical construction of reports, thus a brief linguistic textual analysis of the CRC guidelines for periodic reports is included to reveal whether there is a case for this assumption.     

Children's rights: television programmes aired in Singapore

This article focuses on aspects of children's rights as portrayed in television. The results of a six-month research study show analyses of television content of Channel 5, which is the only free-to-air, 24-hour, English-language entertainment channel in Singapore. The results identify the role of television in assisting Singapore to meet its obligations in regard to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. News and advertisements aired on Channel 5 during primetime (between 7 pm and 10 pm) were recorded over a six-month period, and those featuring or related to children were analysed for the study. The samples were categorised and subcategorised based on the principles of the Convention (UNICEF, (2011a, June 2). Convention on the rights of the child. Rights Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child): Participation, Protection, Development, and Survival. A fifth category, not under United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child-Object, was devised by the researchers. The results of this study have shown that the representation of children on television in Singapore is, in part, a reflection of how Singaporean society views children. Analyses of the media content indicated that protection and development of children was Singapore's top priority. Despite the fact that children were considered to need adult protection there was no reference to the Convention.     

Children's Services Planning in Northern Ireland: Developing a Planning Model to Address Rights and Needs

This article reflects on a number of key concepts and planning tools that have been developed or adapted through the inter-agency planning of services for children and young people in Northern Ireland (Children's Services Planning). These conceptual models have been developed between 1999 and 2005 and illustrate the key contribution of Children's Services Planning to two significant shifts in how the planning task has been understood. These refer to, firstly, the movement from service orientation to needs orientation, and secondly, the progression from needs to rights within service planning.

Children's Services Planning in Northern Ireland is now based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Whole Child Model, which demonstrates the understanding that there is no such thing as a uni-dimensional child who only requires services from one agency. The Family Support model has been in use for some years within the process, and the joint outcomes framework, to be designed to enable agencies to address rights and needs has also been adopted across all four Children and Young People's Committees. In terms of outcomes, an overarching Strategy for Children and Young People will develop an outcomes framework within Northern Ireland, which is likely to build upon that of Every Child Matters, as well as children's rights. Children's Services Planning has also demonstrated that the approach to planning of universal services must be consistent with the planning of services for children with additional needs. There needs to be a strong linkage between the planning and delivery of universal and targeted services.

It is a contention of the article that concepts such as those described are required for multi-sectoral planning, and that a whole system planning approach is required to address the rights and needs of children and young people.     

Ideological Reflections on the DSM-IV-R (or Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain, Dorothy!)

Exclusive North American reliance on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4^th Edition-Revised (DSM-IV-R) to determine diagnoses such as Conduct Disorder or Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder occurs without sufficient critical regard for its ideologically and historically situated assumptions. The author argues for a parallel theoretical framework to guide interventions that is provided for children's practitioners through ongoing implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Rather than relying solely upon the deficit labelling of the DSM-IV-R with its underlying deterministic beliefs about child development, this holistic, rights-based approach assumes young people to be competent social actors whose lives are worthy of study in their own right. The author draws upon comparative theory within the sociology of childhood, practice insights and three case studies for support.     

Raising healthy children: Moral and political responsibility for childhood obesity

Childhood obesity and chronic disease rates continue to climb, but policy and programme responses are mainly limited to education and awareness activities. These encourage individuals to make responsible lifestyle choices. Regulation and environmental change have a minor role, as they involve more intrusive roles for government, invading traditionally private domains of nutrition and physical activity. But to address children's health needs, today's emphasis on self-management is inappropriate. Children, especially the very young, are dependent and vulnerable. I describe why the current public health strategies, with their political and moral foundations, remain ineffective. The foundations are based primarily upon the traditional liberal understanding of the public/private divide, while neglecting to recognize the legal obligations and implications of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and theories of justice and citizenship as they apply to children.     

Working With Street Children: A Child-centred Approach

This paper reviews the theoretical approaches that espouse a child-centred approach in intervening with street children. It focuses on two major themes, namely the rights of the child and client self-determination as proposed by Adler (Corey, 2001). The discussion acknowledges that providing street children with opportunities to participate in decision-making regarding their own lives is imperative. Notwithstanding their alleged marginalization, substantial motivation is provided for the adoption of a client-centred approach that upholds the rights of the child. The paper draws attention to the fact that despite the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), many street children experience deprivation with regard to their basic human needs. It is envisaged that whatever the circumstances for children being on the street, their involvement and participation in alleviating their plight will not be compromised.     

‘When we think about risk,we think about rights’: community-based organisations’ staff members' perspectives on risk,resiliency and rights in Juiz de Fora,Brazil

In this article, we draw on a qualitative case study undertaken in 2008 and 2009 of staff working at community-based organisations for at-risk youth in Juiz de Fora, Brazil, to examine staff members' perspectives of adolescent health-risk behaviours and resiliency. We use these data to explore how recent policy changes in Brazil have led to a shift in the ways in which adolescent risk taking is perceived by those working in youth services, and to suggest the influence that this has had on the way in which these entities promote resiliency among the population they serve. Specifically, we argue that Brazil's Child and Adolescent Act of 1990, a policy derived from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, has been instrumental in reframing for the community-based organisations the question of adolescent health-risk behaviours into a rights-based framework and has shifted the perceptions of those working at such organisations as to who a youth ‘at-risk’ is, why young people engage in risk taking and how best to promote resiliency. This work has implications for understanding both how risk and resiliency are constructed in different social and cultural contexts and how such concepts may change over time due to shifting socio-political climates.     

Exploring the limitations of an adult-led agenda for understanding the health behaviours of young people

Public health and health promotion agendas are usually determined by adults, even when the 'target' population is children and young people. Adult-centred frameworks for health maintenance and the promotion of well-being risk ignoring young people's conceptualizations and experiences of health and health-relevant behaviours. However, the current policy emphasis in the UK and elsewhere apparently seeks to position young people at the centre of their own health-related decisions. Building on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, this paper examines and critiques policies relating to young people in UK, European and worldwide contexts. This paper then introduces data from two qualitative studies conducted in the UK. These studies illustrate that young people's definitions of health often run counter to prevailing public health and health promotion discourses. Young people do, however, often exhibit strategies for managing their health, even though they are frequently restricted by the perceptions that adults have about their lives and behaviour. This paper argues that the new policy discourse is not yet being systematically turned into action to give all young people a voice. This is important to begin to understand young people's perspectives about what matters to them and what really influences their health behaviours.     

Reflections of a Guardian Ad Litem on the Participation of Looked-after Children in Public Law Proceedings

There is much debate about the rights of children relating to the nature and degree of their participation in Public Law Proceedings. Articles 12 (1) and 12 (2) of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 emphasise that children should be involved in decision-making about their welfare; and children who are capable of expressing their views should be given an opportunity to be heard in legal proceedings. This article is based on the reflective experience of a Guardian Ad Litem regarding the participation of “looked-after children” in Public Law Proceedings. It considers the nature and extent of variation in the elicitation, interpretation and use of a child's views, including the various expectations and misconceptions that may arise due to a lack of understanding and appreciation about the way in which to “weight” and use respectfully a child's wishes and feelings. There appears to be considerable variation in the way in which a child's expression of their “wishes and feelings” is used in the decision-making process. For example, one approach perceives a child as having an unequivocal right to have their views considered as the primary factor in decisions about their welfare while another approach holds that the views of relevant adults relative to children's views should have prominence in the decision-making process. Whilst it is important and beneficial to elicit children's views, due attention and care needs to be given to informing children appropriately about the weight that will be given to the expression of their wishes and feelings in decisions about their welfare, including the possibility that a final decision may not concur with their views.     

A Global Research Agenda for Children's Rights in the Digital Age

Taking the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as a starting point for evidence-based policy regarding children's rights in the digital age, we offer a global research agenda designed to produce evidence of value for policy-makers working to promote children's rights. Informed by research reviews and interviews with international stakeholders, four priorities for theory and evidence are identified: (1) the provision of opportunities that confer benefit, recognising that this may be defined diversely according to the cultural context, (2) the protection of children from risk of harm, including understanding the relation between vulnerability and resilience, (3) the balance between risk and opportunities, especially to allow for children's participation even in risky opportunities and (4) the framing of the research agenda (in terms of concepts, design, measures and priorities) and the evaluation of policies and initiatives in collaboration with researchers and practitioners from the global South.     

Safeguarding the Lives of Children Affected by Boko Haram: Application of the SAFE Model of Child Protection to a Rights-Based Situation Analysis

The Boko Haram insurgency in northeast Nigeria is responsible for the highest number of lives lost in Africa in the past decade. The country has witnessed significant violations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Nigeria has signed and ratified. For instance, Nigeria had the second-highest number of children recruited to armed groups and the third-highest number of abductions in 2018. Current humanitarian efforts primarily target camps for internally displaced persons, while state strategies focus mainly on addressing security through combatant-targeted interventions. However, there is a need for more rights-based, integrated, and multifaceted approaches to tackle the interrelated threats to the security of children and their families affected by the conflict. This paper uses the SAFE model of child protection—which examines the interrelatedness of safety, access, family, and education and economic security—to analyze the challenges of children and youth affected by the conflict. We highlight the need for a gendered approach; strategies that address poverty and cultural and governance barriers; and interdisciplinary, context-specific, and autonomous child protection systems. The paper calls for urgent and increased attention to the core rights and human security needs of these children to avoid a replay of negative outcomes of conflict, where the costs and consequences propagate a cycle of violence and disadvantage.     

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

Children in foster care often have no means of influencing matters that concern them, and can easily become outsiders in their own lives. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child enshrines the rights of capable children to express their views freely in matters affecting them and to be heard in any judicial or administrative proceedings concerning them. The aim of this study is to analyse foster children's participation in child welfare processes in different time periods and contexts from the perspective of children and social workers. The data comprise semi-structured interviews of eight children and young people aged seven to 17 in family foster care, as well as interviews of four child welfare social workers. Ethical questions were taken carefully into account. The results suggest that participation in matters concerning them is very significant to children, although they do not always want be active participants (e.g. in meetings). The children hoped that social workers would take a genuine interest in them, listen to them and take their opinions and wishes into consideration. Children sought true and essential information about the reasons for placements and the plans for their future. They felt they were better heard and more able to influence their own affairs after being placed in a foster home than during earlier phases of services. The study identifies many obstacles in children's participation at different systemic levels. Children's loyalty to their parents may prevent them from expressing their opinions. According to social workers, the most serious obstacles in participatory work with children are related to a lack of human and time resources. Social workers need time, work practices, skills and practical wisdom through which children's personal experiences, opinions and wishes can be better heard. They also seek support in handling the emotional aspects of child-protection work and suggest some other measures to develop their work.     

Legal dilemmas for clinicians involved in the care and treatment of children and young people with mental disorder

Background The 2008 revised Mental Health Act Code of Practice describes the legal framework governing the admission to hospital and treatment of children and young people for mental disorders as complex. Clinicians are required to be conversant with common law principles as well as the Mental Health Act (MHA), Children Act, Mental Capacity Act (MCA), Family Law Reform Act, Human Rights Act, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Professionals working with the MHA and the MCA have a legal duty to have regard to the respective Codes of Practice (MHA Code and MCA Code). In addition there is a need to keep up‐to‐date with developments in case law. The recent guidance from the National Institute for Mental Health in England, ‘The Legal Aspects of the Care and Treatment of Children and Young People with Mental Disorder’ draws all of the legal regimes together and suggests pointers on the most appropriate course of action when the regimes overlap. Discussion This paper will aim to highlight legal dilemmas relating to the care and treatment of under 18‐year‐olds for mental disorder and to discuss the impact of these on clinical practice. The new legal framework will be discussed with reference to hypothetical cases. Key issues include age and maturity, capacity, deprivation of liberty and the zone of parental control (ZPC). Conclusions It is essential that clinicians are aware of their responsibilities within the new legal framework in order to avoid becoming a target for litigation. This paper is aimed at meeting the recommendation for clinicians to be aware of their responsibilities and engage in appropriate training.