Cut from the Same Cloth: A Comparative Policy Content Analysis of Disability in Child Protection and Welfare Policies within Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic

Abstract

The isle of Ireland is both socio-politically and geographically divided. Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have distinct, siloed child protection and welfare systems owing to political severance in the early 1900s. Meanwhile disability, as a contested concept with speculative borders and boundaries, features differently across different child protection and welfare policy regimes, in ways that have real effects on everyday practice at a grass-roots level. This paper presents findings of a comparative policy content analysis of disability in child protection and welfare policies within Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. To embed criticality, findings are presented and then contextualized against similar data for child protection and welfare systems within the international liberal welfare regime present in the United States of America. Findings reveal a relatively progressive policy slant across Ireland insofar as international policy standards go. Even so, pervasive international traditions such as associating disability with vulnerability and risk, remain unfortunate and prevalent across the sample.