This study attempts to explore both the pre-street and the current lived experiences ofunaccompanied migrant children on the streets of Accra and the motivations, contributions,perceptions and the challenges these children face at the point of destination. The study furtherexplores street children‟s views on their rights in terms of their schooling, health care andeconomic participation. The overarching perspective of the study is based on the philosophy and tenets of the socialstudies of childhood. A number of concepts and theories which are very prominent in the studyof children and childhood were used as the underpinning framework of the study. These conceptsare; concepts of agency, participation, social structure, street children, working children, andmigration theory. Unaccompanied migrate children become street children as a result ofmigration. The various social structures that confront these children inflame the agency andcompetent spirit which pushes children to engage in economic participation for their existenceand survival in an unknown destination. These concepts and theories will help in making cogentanalysis and also help put my discussions in focus. One major aim of my study was to give children the voice and the platform to air their views inissues that concerns their own lives. In this child focus research, qualitative research approachand specifically the ethnographic method were adopted in the data collection process becausethese approaches give in-depth analysis on social issues. Data collection tools used includesinterviews, participant observation and focus group discussion. My field work was in Accra(Ghana). In all 15 informants made up of both genders were sampled from two research sites, amarket and a lorry station. The analysis of the study revealed that, there exists manifold variety of childhoods. Children‟slived experiences involve work no matter where they are, either with their families or on thestreet as indicated by the study. The results also indicated that, children‟s motives for migratingcan be linked to personal, family and structural conditions which serve as both push and pullfactors, from and to their destination point. Additionally, the results indicated that children‟swork in their destination point is one of the major activities in their daily lives. Again peerrelations on the street are used as a means to support one another in times of need, and play wasidentified to be a part of children‟s street life. Also evidences from the study indicated thatchildren make contributes towards the well being and the development of themselves, theirfamilies and the society as well. Majority of the children living on the street have no classroomeducation, neither do they have access to “proper” medical care. Finally the study revealed that,children face a number of challenges as a part of their lived experiences on the street. Furthermore the following lessons and conclusions from the study are drawn. It was clear thatstreet children need their work in order to survive because children in the Global Southexperience particular structural conditions which necessitate them to work. The universal modelof childhood cannot be applicable to some categories of children, like the informants in mystudy. Aside the adults‟ defined spaces for children, there exist different spaces in the GlobalSouth were children can occupy, such as the street.

The United Nations' Convention on the rights of the child presents a legislative framework that nations worldwide through their ratification have promised to aim for. Going from theory to practice this field study intends to investigate how the work to implement the children’s rights is carried out in reality by social institutions in Somoto Nicaragua. This essay specifically looks at how a children’s rights approach is performed in the work with working children and will therefore focus on two rights that protrude as relevant to the target group; the right to education and the right to be protected from hazardous work and economic exploitation. Furthermore, this paper considers existent criticism towards the human rights conventions for being Eurocentric in its visions and not always applicable to local conditions. Therefore the perception of working children locally in Nicaragua is examined to see how well this is in accordance with the legislation on children’s rights or if the social institutions have met difficulties in the implementation. Fundamental in the work carried out by the social institutions has been to raise awareness in the society on the children’s rights. The conclusion is that attitudes to working children have gone through a change since the introduction of a children’s rights approach in Somoto, but what remains the major obstacle to implementation is the restricted access to economic resources.

The introduction of Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans proposed in the Children and Families Act 2014 has aimed to give parents and children who are going through the assessment process greater control and choice in decisions, and enhance the multi-professional collaboration between education, health services and social care. This research seeks to evaluate to what extent parents’, children and young people’s, and professionals' experiences correspond to these values at an early stage of implementation. The methodology of this thesis is based on a realistic evaluation framework informed by the work of Pawson and Tilley (1997). Realistic evaluation aims to construct a programme theory which links three distinct broad aspects of a programme: its context, mechanisms and outcomes (C-M-Os). This research employs a programme theory of how an EHC assessment is conducted and has been developed from the current literature on person-centred theory. Person-centred theory has been chosen because of its corresponding value base to the SEND reforms and the recommendation of its use in a number of government policy documents including the SEND Code of Practice (DfE, 2014). The programme theory has been used to devise questionnaires that have sought to gain professionals' experiences of the assessment process, particularly in relation to multi-agency working, and their perceptions of the person-centred nature of the assessment. In addition, five case studies have explored these issues in more depth to ascertain whether the EHC assessment process in this authority is meeting the core aims of the Children and Families Act 2014. Semi structured interviews and card sorting tasks were devised using the programme theory and conducted with a total of one child, five families and five professionals from five individual EHC assessments. This analysis goes beyond a description of the facilitating factors and barriers to person-centred support and examines how person-centred outcomes arise from specific contexts and mechanisms. Findings suggest that experiences of face-to-face multi-professional collaboration were positive within the EHC assessment group. Nevertheless, professionals expressed frustration that in some cases colleagues were not able to attend meetings due to time constraints, capacity within their services and the commissioning arrangements of their services. Parental and professional experiences of the process appear to be positive. The research demonstrates one case study where a person centred planning approach was utilised very successfully from the perspective of all involved. However, there are significant concerns raised in both phases of this study as to the way in which children and young people are provided with opportunities of contributing to their EHC assessment. The findings are relevant to the development of the EHC assessment process in the local authority (LA) in which I am employed, and will contribute to the debate about the role of educational psychologists (EPs) in evaluating this national policy.

A SOCIOLOGICAL PROFILE OF STREET CHILDREN IN ANKARA Pehlivanli, Ezgi M.A. Department of Sociology Supervisor : Prof. Dr. Kayhan Mutlu January 2007, 105 pages This thesis draws a profile of children who work/ live on the streets of Ankara relying on children&rsquo / s life histories and social workers&rsquo / opinions about the situation in the context of Social Exclusion. Social is a new concept, was first used in 1960&rsquo / s around Europe in order to define the groups, who are faced to material and socio-cultural deprivation due to the difficulties experienced by the Welfare States. This study assumes that street children can be explained in the context of social exclusion. Employing qualitative methods, this study main aim of this study is to understand the reasons for children to start working on street. After the introductory chapter, Chapter II provides a theoretical framework, in which street children and the concept of social exclusion are examined. Chapter III focuses on the findings from the life histories of children who work/live on streets of Ankara. Chapter IV contains the information about the interviews with social workers and a comparison part, in which two types of information, is analyzed in the context of Social Exclusion.

Contesting international strategies for combatting child labour that derive from modern, Western conceptions of childhood, several developing country organizations have embraced the principle of child protagonism by declaring that working children can become the leading agents in struggles to advance their interests when they are mentored in forming their own independent organizations. This thesis first explores how an African NGO, informed by its urban animation experiences, developed its own specific discourse of child protagonism and employed it as the basis for establishing an African working children’s organization designed to provide compensatory literacy and skills training and to empower members to improve their own and other children’s working conditions. The thesis considers this foundational child protagonism discourse in light of data collected in Senegal by means of participant observation and interviews in grassroots groups and associations of working children, as well as in the offices of both the local NGO and its international NGO donor. Fieldwork revealed limitations of the specific child protagonism practice pursued over the past two decades. Specifically, redirecting resources from direct pedagogical accompaniment of grassroots working child groups towards bureaucratic capacity building for the “autonomization” of higher hierarchical levels of the organization, as well as towards international meetings, has resulted in the organization’s diminished impact for vulnerable groups in Dakar, particularly migrant girl domestic workers. Deepening implication with international donors has forced shifts in the priorities of the local NGO and the working children’s organization it facilitates, yet the two have been largely successful in buffering donor probes precisely into the ground level effectiveness of their child protagonism strategy. No previous independent research has sought to confront the discourse of child protagonism with a comprehensive examination of a working children’s organization’s practice, from its most local processes to its international dimensions and donor relations.

Contesting international strategies for combatting child labour that derive from modern, Western conceptions of childhood, several developing country organizations have embraced the principle of child protagonism by declaring that working children can become the leading agents in struggles to advance their interests when they are mentored in forming their own independent organizations. This thesis first explores how an African NGO, informed by its urban animation experiences, developed its own specific discourse of child protagonism and employed it as the basis for establishing an African working children’s organization designed to provide compensatory literacy and skills training and to empower members to improve their own and other children’s working conditions. The thesis considers this foundational child protagonism discourse in light of data collected in Senegal by means of participant observation and interviews in grassroots groups and associations of working children, as well as in the offices of both the local NGO and its international NGO donor. Fieldwork revealed limitations of the specific child protagonism practice pursued over the past two decades. Specifically, redirecting resources from direct pedagogical accompaniment of grassroots working child groups towards bureaucratic capacity building for the “autonomization” of higher hierarchical levels of the organization, as well as towards international meetings, has resulted in the organization’s diminished impact for vulnerable groups in Dakar, particularly migrant girl domestic workers. Deepening implication with international donors has forced shifts in the priorities of the local NGO and the working children’s organization it facilitates, yet the two have been largely successful in buffering donor probes precisely into the ground level effectiveness of their child protagonism strategy. No previous independent research has sought to confront the discourse of child protagonism with a comprehensive examination of a working children’s organization’s practice, from its most local processes to its international dimensions and donor relations.

Contesting international strategies for combatting child labour that derive from modern, Western conceptions of childhood, several developing country organizations have embraced the principle of child protagonism by declaring that working children can become the leading agents in struggles to advance their interests when they are mentored in forming their own independent organizations. This thesis first explores how an African NGO, informed by its urban animation experiences, developed its own specific discourse of child protagonism and employed it as the basis for establishing an African working children’s organization designed to provide compensatory literacy and skills training and to empower members to improve their own and other children’s working conditions. The thesis considers this foundational child protagonism discourse in light of data collected in Senegal by means of participant observation and interviews in grassroots groups and associations of working children, as well as in the offices of both the local NGO and its international NGO donor. Fieldwork revealed limitations of the specific child protagonism practice pursued over the past two decades. Specifically, redirecting resources from direct pedagogical accompaniment of grassroots working child groups towards bureaucratic capacity building for the “autonomization” of higher hierarchical levels of the organization, as well as towards international meetings, has resulted in the organization’s diminished impact for vulnerable groups in Dakar, particularly migrant girl domestic workers. Deepening implication with international donors has forced shifts in the priorities of the local NGO and the working children’s organization it facilitates, yet the two have been largely successful in buffering donor probes precisely into the ground level effectiveness of their child protagonism strategy. No previous independent research has sought to confront the discourse of child protagonism with a comprehensive examination of a working children’s organization’s practice, from its most local processes to its international dimensions and donor relations.