Public Child Law

The "Public Child" and the Reluctant State? Robbie Gilligan (bio) This essay explores the Irish state's response to the "public child." It assesses the available evidence and argues ultimately that the Irish state has been reluctant at best, negligent at worst, in its response to the needs of the "public child." The term "public child," as used here, refers to a child whose private world has in some sense become public business, attracting attention because concern has been aroused about his or her care or safety.1 The nature of this concern eventually leads the apparatus of state control, governmental or nongovernmental, to intervene, often placing the child in the care of the state, away from its home and the care of its parents.2 In earlier decades, this apparatus of control might have operated in civil society at least partly through the work of nongovernmental organizations, [End Page 265] such as the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) or through the efforts of concerned citizens.3 In recent decades, this apparatus has become more the remit of state systems, such as statutory child protection, social work services, or the Garda Síochána.4 Thus, the state has become increasingly involved not just in regulating the basis of intervention at the more serious end of the spectrum of child protection but also very often in delivering that intervention. The "public child" in the context of this discussion lives away from home, on foot of state intervention with or without parental consent.5 This essay also considers evidence on the experience of the "private child" and the "adopted child" to throw further light on the fate of the "public child." The "private child" lives within its family structure of whatever form, largely untouched by troubles that might bring him or her onto the radar screen of state surveillance systems. The "adopted child" is raised in its adoptive family home following an adoption order in accordance with state legislation. Legal adoption came late to the Republic of Ireland, only having been introduced as recently as 1952.6 In at least some instances, it [End Page 266] might be argued that domestic adoption serves the function, among others, of transforming a "public child" or a potential "public child" into a "private child."7 Unlike the private or adopted child, the public child's marginal status meant that it lacked sufficient advocacy on its behalf in the political or policy world. In terms of time frame, this essay focuses on the period since the publication of the Reformatory and Industrial Schools Systems Report, 1970—hereafter referred to by its more popular name, the Kennedy Report—although reference will be made to earlier developments where these help to explain later trends.8 The second part of the essay's title refers to the "reluctant state." Even a minimalist understanding of the state's role in comparative social welfare suggests three key areas of responsibility for child protective services: the enacting of legislation, the funding of activity to at least some basic level, and the monitoring of compliance with legal standards or funding conditions. Using evidence from these three areas of activity, this essay argues that the Irish state can indeed be classified as "reluctant" in its dealings with the "public child." The role of the state in relation to the "public child" will, moreover, be explored through four relevant lenses: residential care, foster care, adoption, and community supports, namely measures that might preempt the need to make care of the child a public responsibility.9 [End Page 267] Residential Care Given the plethora of media attention since the mid-1990s to child abuse scandals involving the state's industrial and reformatory schools, in the public mind residential care is probably the form of provision most associated with the "public child." Residential care refers to care provided in institutional or nonfamilial settings, such as in industrial schools, reformatory institutions, or orphanages.10 Prior to 1970, these settings were generally large and forbidding institutions, but with subsequent reform, now tend to be smaller in scale.11 Reflecting the spirit and the recommendations of the Kennedy Report, these newer settings are more...

Children have been identified as particularly vulnerable to psychological and behavioral difficulties following disaster. Public child and family disaster communication is one public health tool that can be utilized to promote coping/resilience and ameliorate maladaptive child reactions following an event. We conducted a review of the public disaster communication literature and identified three main functions of child and family disaster communication: fostering preparedness, providing psychoeducation, and conducting outreach. Our review also indicates that schools are a promising system for child and family disaster communication. We complete our review with three conclusions. First, theoretically, there appears to be a great opportunity for public disaster communication focused on child disaster reactions. Second, empirical research assessing the effects of public child and family disaster communication is essentially nonexistent. Third, despite the lack of empirical evidence in this area, there is opportunity for public child and family disaster communication efforts that address new domains.

This paper focuses on the topic of marital conflict and how it can be conceptualized and processed in the child’s mind through a psychoanalytic intervention carried out in public services, that is, child and family mental health and social welfare services operating within the Italian public healthcare system. As is often the case in the Italian context, in public mental health services for children and their families, interventions are typically reserved for patients with multiple diagnoses, leaving at-risk cases—those requiring clinical attention—on long waiting lists. Such situations of family conflict and emotional distress observed in public child and family services, however, could benefit from psychoanalytically-informed interventions capable of preventing future maladjustment. After providing a theoretical and clinical framework of the concept of co-parenting—understood as a psychic space offered to the child to accompany them through the phases of mental growth—I will highlight the most meaningful elements from a year-long weekly psychoanalytic psychotherapy with a seven-year-old boy. I believe this child allowed his mind to begin thinking again (Bion, 1962) and to emotionally reinvest in the surrounding world, reintroducing a virtuous cycle into family life that enabled more adequate care for each member’s emotional experiences.

Childhood studies is an emerging area of scholarship in Ireland and this volume makes a significant contribution to the field. It ambitiously brings together 21 interdisciplinary essays, dominated by literature and history, but including other areas such as social work. To assist the reader in navigating these diverse studies, Maria Luddy and James M. Smith have arranged the essays into five thematic sections, expertly woven together in their introduction. The first two sections consider ‘the child and history’ and ‘charity, welfare and childcare’. The Irish child was considered instrumental in societal reform and military strategy in Tudor and Stuart times according to Mary O'Dowd, with preoccupations about child welfare only emerging during the 17th century. From the mid-Victorian period, child poverty was a central concern and Gillian McIntosh provides insights into attitudes towards Edwardian street-trading children. Welfare was provided by workhouses, church-run institutions and philanthropic organisations. Luddy highlights the work of the Dublin branch of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in increasing the reporting of neglect and abuse. Virginia Crossman notes that, despite campaigns to increase boarding out, institutional care (particularly church-run) predominated into the late-20th century. Eoin O'Sullivan shows how the 1970 Kennedy Report prompted a gradual transfer of welfare services to state-run professionalised community-based services. As well as improvements in the care and welfare of the ‘public child’ such as increased foster care, Robbie Gilligan identifies a number of gaps in state provision, including monitoring, and allocation of social workers. Despite parents' constitutional rights in relation to their children's education, Mary E. Daly notes that for many years they were excluded from playing any formal role by church, state and the teaching profession. Section three focuses on ‘shaping childhood cultures’. Ríona Nic Congáil analyses the extent to which the Weekly Freeman's children's Fireside Club column influenced the Gaelic League, while Ciaran O'Neill demonstrates how concerns about the imperialistic influence of the British schoolboy novel led to its adaptation for an Irish nationalist audience. Three of the studies use autobiographies to explore individual experiences. Drawing on hitherto underexploited 20th century Irish-language autobiographies Máirín Nic Eoin examines the representation of adult-child relationships, while Barry Sloan uses literary autobiographies to explore mid-20th century boyhood. Focusing on writers, Claire Lynch demonstrates that reading was an apprenticeship for both life and authorship, helping them make sense of the world. The following six essays explore ‘literary imaginings’. Mary Shine Thompson considers early modern understandings of childhood through Jonathan Swift's writing, noting for instance that despite emerging concepts of bourgeois boyhood, little distinction was made between girlhood and womanhood. Brandon Jernigan's re-examination of Oscar Wilde's fairy tales positions them as a space where issues regarding Anglo-Irish participation in Irish nationalism could be addressed. In Irish literature, the child frequently represents post-independence Ireland, mirroring the ideals of the newly formed state. Leeann Lane demonstrates how by foregrounding family, home and rural life, the children's author Patricia Lynch created a sense of history for post-Independence Ireland. Conversely, Eibhear Walsh notes the tensions that exist between the new state's nationalist and patriarchal ideals and European female education as portrayed in Kate O'Brien's The Land of Spices. The maturation narrative, key in Irish literary tradition, is dominated by masculine interpretations and Jane Elizabeth Dougherty argues that despite Ireland's coming of age, symbolised by Mary Robinson's presidency, a maturation narrative for the Irish female child was still not possible in the 1990s. Kelly J.S. McGovern explores the extent to which queer time and space in Eilís Ní Dhuibne's The dancers dancing expands the maturation narrative to encompass the female child. Section five, ‘cultural representations’, commences with Margot Backus's comparative study of the representation of children in nationalist journalism. During the Land War (1882), children were portrayed with little sentiment but by the Lockout (1913) poor children were depicted in emotional and symbolic terms, serving to unify a fragmented nationalist audience. In her analysis of Irish films, Ruth Barton demonstrates how magical realism has given way to social realism; being childlike and innocent is a disability in contemporary Ireland with its corrupting influences. Finally, Harry Hendrick highlights the need for a conceptual framework for researching and writing histories of children and childhood. This volume is a welcome addition to the growing corpus of Irish childhood studies. Although scholars will be drawn to particular topics, reading the volume in its entirety is recommended, providing fascinating insights into the changing relationships between child, family, state and church over time and across disciplines. It will also be of benefit to researchers undertaking comparative studies, providing them with perspectives on childhood as experienced in Ireland, as well as Irish scholarship in this field.

Highlighting how medical professionals in English Canada understood accidents in childhood, this article explores the emergence of the idea of a “public child” throughout the course of the twentieth century. It asks how shifts in attitudes toward public health, domesticity, race, and gender shaped ideas about children, their safety, and their protection. The medicalized construction of a public child helped foster a more recognizable sense of community responsibility for the wellbeing of particular children at the same time as it increased and deepened the surveillance of families and parents. Although the management of children has always been a task ascribed primarily to women, the early twentieth century witnessed a new interest in categorizing children, whether as infants, workers, or students, as public health and safety risks worthy of public attention.

Denne artikel fokuserer på de – ofte implicitte – barndomsforestillinger der produceres i skole-hjemrelationen i retorikker og dominerende forestillinger om, hvad skole-hjem-relationerne skal handle om i en dansk kontekst. Artiklen kaster et kritisk blik på de senere års ændringer ved at anskue skolehjem-samarbejde i et barndoms- og generationsperspektiv. Der argumenteres for at der er sket en tendentiel øgning i voksen-monitoreringen af børn som følge af en øget samordning/sammensmeltning af de voksen-positioner de møder i hjemmet (forældrene) og skolen (lærere). Denne bevægelse er led i en mere omfattende og institutionalisering af børns liv idet den også omfatter det der tidligere blev opfattet som børns fritidsinstitutioner (børnehave, fritidshjem). Samtidig har staten i stigende grad bemyndiget sig selv til at intervenere i familiens indre liv; ikke blot i dens skabelse af det ‘private barn’, men også ved at forpligte familien på at være medskaber af ‘det offentlige barn’, herunder ikke mindst dets funktion som kommende arbejdskraft. English abstract This article focuses on the – often implicit – understandings of childhood produced in rhetorics on home-school relations and in dominant understandings of what home-school-relations is about in a Danish context. The article critically examines recent years’ changes by analysing these changes from a childhood and generational perspective. It is argued that there has been an increased adult-monitoring of children as a result of increased coordination/ amalgamation of the adult positions the children meet at home (with parents) and school (with teachers). This movement is part of a more comprehensive institutionalization of children’s lives as it includes children’s life in institutions that previously was considered part of children’s leisure time (kindergarten, after-school clubs etc.). At the same time, the changes reveal how the state has authorized itself to intervene in the inner life of the family not only in its creation of the ‘private child’, but also to oblige the family to be co-creator of the ‘public child’ thereby emphasizing the child’s function as future working force.

In this study, a survey was conducted to find out the perception and support needs for early identification and early intervention of at-risk young children, targeting child care and education teachers of public inclusive child care and education centers for young children with disabilities. A total of 116 questionnaires were used as final analysis data. And using SPSS 29.0, frequency analysis, multiple response frequency analysis, and content analysis were performed according to the characteristics of the items. The research results are as follows. First, participants at public inclusive child care and education centers for young children with disabilities collected information on at-risk young children through regular observation and anecdotal records, and then diagnosed them using a screening tool. Second, participants mainly recognized the behavioral characteristics of young children with autism as well as developmental delays as behavioral characteristics of at-risk young children. Third, participants are aware of the needs for early identification and early intervention, but they are experiencing difficulties due to lack of related knowledge and differences in views between parents and public inclusive child care and education centers. Fourth, participants requested support from special education experts, training to strengthen child care and education teachers’ competency, reduced teacher-to-child ratio, and systematic and professional institutional support for early identification and early intervention of at-risk young children. This study is meaningful in that it provided basic data for the establishment of a support system for early identification and early intervention of at-risk young children.

Previous articleNext article No AccessDesirable Qualifications for Child Welfare Work as Recommended by Public and Private Child Welfare AgenciesHazel H. FredericksenHazel H. Fredericksen Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Social Service Review Volume 20, Number 2Jun., 1946 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/635806 Views: 1Total views on this site PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Objective: to adapt and validate the World Health Organization's safe birth checklist for the Brazilian reality using a public maternal and child reference unit as a model. Method: this is a methodological study. In the first stage, the instrument was adapted based on the literature review and the guidelines of the safe birth checklist protocol. In the second stage corresponding to validation through content analysis, the adapted instrument was sent to the judges using Likert scales, consisting of 41 items. To analyze the data, the Content Validity Index was used. Results: Validity and content analysis were carried out by 17 judges working in assistance, teaching and research. Items with a Content Validity Index greater than or equal to 0.8 were maintained in full or underwent revisions as suggested by the judges. The instrument achieved an overall Content Validity Index of 0.96. Conclusion: the instrument was valid in the five dimensions studied and can be used in similar birth care services in Brazil and around the world and used in future research.

Our purpose in this study is to explore the effect that increases in the Syrian refugee population could have on public maternal and child health outcomes. Data collected from official records from 81 Turkish provinces in 2018, and then, subjected to mediating analysis using a path analytic approach to examine the interrelationships between the Syrian population, adolescent marriage, and economic integration factors on refugee maternal and child health outcomes. An increase in the Syrian population would lead to a rise in adolescent birth rates and under-5 mortality under the mediating effect of an increase in adolescent female marriage.

Increasingly, public sector child welfare agencies are contracting with private agencies for the provision of specialized services to clients while maintaining oversight and case management responsibilities. At the same time, funders, both private and public, are demanding that service providers partner and collaborate with one another. In this article, we present results from a study of a unique partnership between two state child welfare agencies and a private child welfare agency aimed at reunifying families whose children have been removed and placed in foster care. Data was obtained from 41 key informants using a questionnaire and a structured interview. Findings support earlier studies of collaboration, and indicate the strengths of this partnership and factors that facilitated and hindered it. The results have implications for agencies that both contract for and provide a range of child welfare services as well as other interagency relationships.

Reform efforts in early childhood education include recommendations to adopt more family-centered approaches to practice, including greater family support functions. In this study the beliefs of 280 early childhood teachers regarding aspects of family-centered programming were assessed using the written Family Involvement Survey (FIS). Teacher beliefs were compared across public school, child care, and Head Start settings. Results revealed that public school early childhood teachers reported significantly less positive beliefs about parents' childrearing interests and abilities, along with lower self-perceived competence in relating to families, than either child care or Head Start teachers. As compared to Head Start teachers, both public school and child care teachers reported significantly more conflict about providing support services to families through their early education programs. These results were interpreted, in part, as evidence of the need for more in-depth knowledge about the separate profes...

In light of new welfare reforms, it is essential that public welfare workers move individuals from welfare to work in an expedient fashion. Client alcohol and/or drug use/abuse is one barrier that may inhibit this process. The following study (N = 93) administered both the Hudson Index of Alcohol Involvement, the Hudson Index of Drug Involvement (rapid assessment instruments) and the Miller Substance Abuse Subtly Screening Inventory (SASSI) to public welfare and Child Protection system clients. Results indicated that the two rapid assessment measures strongly correlated with the advanced, commonly used SASSI measure. It is suggested that public welfare workers should institute these rapid assessment instruments at intake to screen clients for alcohol and drug use/abuse. When indicated, the client could then be referred to the appropriate agency for further assessment and treatment, to better prepare them for employment as mandated by new welfare reforms. The rapid assessment instruments were found to be shorter than the SASSI, easily administered, and able to detect alcohol and/or drug use/abuse effectively and efficiently in these populations.

Despite numerous domestic laws and treaties prohibiting child labour, the practice persists in many African countries, including in government supply chains. It is important to highlight the connection between public procurement and child labour in Africa because the continent hosts over 50% of the world’s child labourers. Furthermore, tackling child labour through public procurement processes has not attracted much academic and policy attention. In order to shift this narrative, this article examines the public procurement frameworks of Ghana and Nigeria to reveal how they address child labour throughout the process of planning, tendering, contract award and contract management. It finds that the selected countries’ legal frameworks are inadequate in addressing child labour and recommends measures to improve the identified limitations.

Women involved in public assistance and child welfare systems often must overcome multiple barriers to self-sufficiency and family stability or face sanctions or loss of benefits. Kentucky's Targeted Assessment Program (TAP) is an innovative model for assisting these women by placing human services professionals in public assistance and child welfare offices to provide support services and promote integrated service delivery This article discusses TAP program data for years 2005 through 2008, as well as initial 6-month follow-up data. These data suggest that TAP is effective in reducing the burden of barriers faced by participants. TAP strategies are discussed for their utility in informing practice models of human services agencies to proactively promote participant success in overcoming barriers.