EU Disability Workshop

Professor Monica Dowling Faculty of Health and

Social CareThe Open University, UK

What do I do?

Current fields of research are:

• Children with disabilities and their families – their experiences of services in the UK, Bosnia Herzegovina (B&H) and Croatia, Bulgaria, Latvia and Russia

• International Adoption from China and the development of domestic adoption and fostering

• Innovation in the public sector – UK editor on online journal - www.innovation.cc

Who do I do it for?

• Social Services Departments – UK – social service users including children with disabilities

• Open Society Research – parents and parent organisations in B&H and Croatia, NGOs, governments

• UNICEF research – Innocenti Research Centre Florence (Bulgaria, Russia, Latvia) – parents, children with disabilities and providers, governments, NGOs, EU

• ESRC collaborative bid – with Renmin University China, adoptive parents, adopted children and providers including children with special needs, governments, providers, NGOs

• Since 1983 each child with a disability receives a statement when he/she starts school, outlining what his special educational needs are and how they should be met – schools receive government payments to meet those needs

What makes me different ?

• Working to create enactments for the least powerful

• Working with influential NGOs that can affect EU policy and government initiatives

How good am I?

Research Assessment Exercise (2008) OU were considered world leading in the area of children and families (2 Professors and one researcher)

Published by UNICEF worldwide and in Disability and Society, Child and Family Social

work and British Journal of Social Work

Dream Projects

De-insitutionalisation of children with disabilities in Eastern Europe – large scale study that makes a difference for EU, governments,

international and local NGOs and parents and most importantly children

A study of families with a child/adult with a disability – how can medical/social practitioners connect and communicate more effectively with

families and how can EU governments and NGOs help?