EPIC is an independent voluntary organisation in the Republic of Ireland that advocates for the rights of children in care and young people who have care experience. One aspect of EPIC's work is the Aftercare Advocacy and Support Service, which provides confidential advice and support to young people who are preparing to leave care, those in…

The importance of attention to children's emotions has been emphasised widely in early care and education research and policy. Enabling such attention has been seen as achieved primarily through attachment interactions with nursery staff. However, there is increasing awareness that facilitating such interactions in a way that is optimal for…

Research on the relationships between health care aides (HCAs) and families of clients has been situated mainly in long-term care settings and includes scant findings about the perceptions of HCAs. Based on the findings of a larger qualitative study using a grounded theory approach, this paper addresses the topic of HCA-family relationships in…

This article reports the experiences of families of children with autism in the People's Republic of China. The caregivers of 43 children with autism attending one of two short-term (3-month) intervention programmes for young children with autism were interviewed about their experiences before, during, and after the programme. Parent-to-parent…

As part of the prevention and social inclusion agenda, the Children's Fund, set up in 2000, has developed preventative services for children at risk of social exclusion. Drawing on a large qualitative dataset of interviews conducted in 2004/05 with children, young people and their parents/carers who accessed Children Fund services, this article…

Action Learning is now a well established strategy for reflective inquiry in healthcare. Whilst a great deal is know about action learning there has been inadequate research on the process of learning that takes place, and the impact that this holds for individuals, groups or organisations. This article reports on the findings of 15-month action…

Sure Start is a Government project that aims to prevent social exclusion by targeting children between 0 and 4 years of age living in areas of social and economic deprivation. This study examined whether a Tier 2 Behaviour Support Service within a local Sure Start project was able to bring about improvements in children's behaviour and the levels…

This paper describes the Parent-Caregiver Project, a research and demonstration program which focuses on the relationship between parents and caregivers in group day care settings. The project's purpose is two-fold: (1) to determine the nature of and identify variables that appear to influence parent-caregiver relationships in day care settings;…