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.

Provides a nuanced picture of how leaving care policy varies according to local, national and international context

Foreword; Mike Stein.- Introduction; Philip Mendes and Pamela Snow.- Part I. Particularly vulnerable groups of care leavers. - Chapter 1. The Double-Bind - Looked After Children and Youth Justice; Nicola Carr and Siobhan McAlister.- Chapter 2. Young People Transitioning from Out-of-home Care in Victoria, Australia: Strengthening Support Services for Dual Clients of Child Protection and Youth Justice; Philip Mendes, Pamela C. Snow and Susan Baidawi.- Chapter 3. Supporting young people with an intellectual disability transitioning from out-of-home care to adult life in Queensland, Australia; Sarah McDonald, Kathleen Ellem and Jill Wilson.- Chapter 4. A comparison of young people with a disability transitioning from out-of-home care in Australia and Northern Ireland; Pamela C. Snow, Berni Kelly, Philip Mendes and Delia O'Donohue.- Part II. Pathways to Educational Success.- Chapter 5. Comparisons of policy and practice assisting care leavers into higher education in different jurisdictions/countries, and the role of international benchmarking; Andrew Harvey, Patricia McNamara and Lisa Andrewartha.- Chapter 6. I want to be someone, I want to make a difference: Young care leavers preparing for the future in South Australia; Dee Michell and Claudine Scalzi.- Chapter 7. Muddling Upwards: The Unexpected, Unpredictable and Strange on the Path from Care to High Achievement; Jacqueline Z Wilson and Frank Golding.- Chapter 8. The contribution of a key scenario to care leavers' transition to adulthood in Israel; Yifat Mor-Salwo and Anat Zeira.- Chapter 9. The drawback of getting by - Implicit imbalances in the educational support of young people in and leaving care in Germany; Stefan Kongeter, Wolfgang Schroer and Maren Zeller.- Part III. Comparative policy and practice in different jurisdictions.- Chapter 10. Legislation, policy and practice: Developments in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia; Emily R. Munro, Anne-Kirstine Mølholt and Katie Hollingworth.- Chapter 11. Involving peer researchers in studies of young people in and leaving care - Reflections from research in England, Northern Ireland and Argentina; Berni Kelly, Jo Dixon and Mariana Incarnato.- Chapter 12. Researching care leavers in an ethical manner in Switzerland, Germany, Israel and China; Samuel Keller, Benjamin Strahl, Tehila Refaeli and Claire (Ting) Zhao.- Part IV. An analysis of policy and practice in specific jurisdictions.- Chapter 13. Young people transitioning from care in Australia - a critical but neglected area of policy development; Toni Beauchamp.- Chapter 14. CREATE's advocacy for young people transitioning from care in Australia; Joseph J. McDowall.- Chapter 15. Journeys of Exclusion: Unpacking the experience of adolescent care leavers in New Zealand; Nicola Atwool.- Chapter 16. Transitioning from care in Vietnam: Policy context and practice strategies; Mary Elizabeth Collins and Bùi Th¿ Thanh Tuy¿n.- Chapter 17. Young People Transitioning from Care in South Africa: Welfare Contexts, Research and Practice; Adrian Van Breda and Lisa Dickens.- Chapter 18. Improving institutional care to enhance outcomes for care leavers in Russia; Evgenia Stepanova and Simon Hackett.- Chapter 19. Cast out and Punished, the experiences of care leavers in Jordan; Rawan Ibrahim.- Chapter 20. The role of informal leaving care peer support networks in Romania; Gabriela Dima and John Pinkerton.