ABSTRACT
There is no doubt that measures to promote child welfare have developed and evolved over the past 150 years. However, to an extent, the way in which safeguarding, wellbeing and mental health in childhood are approached today mirrors practices and perceptions of the late 19th century, particularly in relation to ‘disordered’ and ‘difficult’ young people who are ‘incorrigible’. What is ignored here is that these so-called disordered/disruptive behaviours may actually signify a pathway (albeit dysfunctional) to resilience through the only means available to them. This chapter highlights the need to centralise young people’s needs/voices in decisions around services that affect them, which is currently often tokenistic or a ‘tick box’ exercise. It is here that critical realist ontology is useful in making sense of differentiated and stratified social structures, as well as the quandary between three structural concepts: ‘absence’ (under-representation, under-privilege and what is missing in a context or institution/organisation highlighting a possible need for a critical focus); ‘difference’ (stigma and labels in relation to ‘bad behaviour’ and mental illness); and ‘threat’ (e.g. high cost of services, ‘immoral behaviour’).
