Project Profile

Does every child matter, post Blair?
The interconnections of disabled childhoods.

Principal Investigator:  Dan Goodley
Research Fellow: Dr Katherine Runswick Cole

RIHSC Centre: Social Change and Well-being
Research Area: Critical Community and Disability Studies

Start day: July 2008
End day: May 2011

Total funding: £255,000
Funded by: Economic And Social Research Council (RES-062-23-1138)

Aims and Descriptions

How have disabled children, between the ages of 4 and 16 years old and their families, faired under the Blair government?

This project will answer this, and other questions, by exploring the extent to which, over the last 10 years, policies, legislation and practices have tackled matters of exclusion and regeneration for disabled children. We will engage with parents, children and professionals to help us to explore the impact of the Every Child Matters agenda; the adequacy of existing theories about disabled children, parents and professionals; how the concepts of 'good parent', 'enabling professional' and 'disabled children' are promoted; the ways in which forms of 'enabling healthcare', 'inclusive education' and 'accessible leisure' can work together.

Our study employs a critical review of policy, interviews with 10 disabled children and 10 parents, focus groups with a mix of professionals and 18 months observation of families as they participate in the arenas of health, education and leisure.

Our work is informed by critical disability studies, critical and community psychologies and sociologies of childhood and families. It will be of interest to parent organisations, practitioners, policy makers and organisations of disabled people. This project builds, in part, on a previous ESRC funded project (RES-000-23-0129).


Office for Disability Issues (ODI) Evidence Day, 19th November, 2009

Dan Goodley and Katherine Runswick-Cole were invited to give evidence to the first Office for Disability Issues (ODI) Evidence Day in London on 19th November, 2009. The ODI works across Government departments for equality for disabled people. The first Evidence Day brought together academics, disabled people and policy makers to focus on policy recommendations.

Dan and Katherine presented some initial findings from this current ESRC funded project 'Does Every Child Matter, post-Blair? The interconnections of disabled childhoods' and findings from a previous ESRC project 'Parents, Professionals and Disabled Babies: Identifying Enabling Care' and a book that reported on the findings of the Enabling Care Project (McLaughlin, J. Goodley, D. Clavering, E. and Fisher, P. (2008) Families Raising Disabled Children, London: Palgrave MacMillan).

The focus of the presentation was on the community exclusion of disabled children and their families.

Other External Academics involved:

Dr Janice McLaughlin, Newcastle University

For further details or information then contact the grant holder and project director:

Dan Goodley,
Professor of Psychology and Disability Studies,
Manchester Metropolitan University,
RIHSC,
Psychology and Social Change,
Gaskell Campus,
Manchester, M13 0JA.

Tel: (+44) 0161 247 2526
Fax: (+44) 0161 247 6842
Email: Dan Goodley