(From) The Mill for Grinding Old People Young

Chapter one of novel in progress

A Long and Winding Road to Employment?: Disabled young people in Northern Ireland making the transition to adulthood

This paper presents the findings of a qualitative research project that explores the experiences and aspirations of disabled young people in Northern Ireland as they make and deal with the transition to adulthood. The study involved young people with disabilities (n=76) in four areas of Northern Ireland, ensuring a geographical spread, an urban/rural mix and representation of both communities. Young people with learning disabilities were included as well as those with physical and/or sensory impairments. This paper focuses on those who were completing job training or work placements and examines the role of such schemes in assisting young people’s transition to adulthood. The research found that many young people had positive experiences of work placement and job training and that social interaction was important to them. Few young people, however, had made the actual transition from work placement or training to ‘real’ employment.

Who goes where? Young children's pathways through care in Northern Ireland

This is one of a series of articles reporting on the large-scale ‘Northern Ireland Care Pathways and Outcomes Study’ (McSherry et al, 2008). The study has been examining a population of young children (n=374) who were in care under five years of age in Northern Ireland, and initially followed them across a four-year period (2000-2004). It has mapped these young children’s care careers, and explored factors relating to five care pathways that these children progressed along, i.e. towards adoption; long-term non-relative foster care; long-term relative foster care; Residence Order; and return to birth parent/s. This paper will examine the children’s care pathway patterns from 2000 to 2004, and will identify the background factors that appear to have influenced their specific care pathway. These background factors relate to the age of child, length of time in care, the child’s health, the child’s behaviour and regional variation. The findings indicate that although the care pathway patterns were to some extent similar to England and Wales, there were differences apparent to the Northern Ireland context.