Professor Dóra Bjarnason. University of Iceland. Session 4 - Changing Children's Services. Chair Martha Holden, Project Director, University of Cornell. Getting It Right for Every Child: Childhood, Citizenship and Children's Services, Glasgow, 24-26 September 2008. http://www.iriss.org.uk/conference/girfec

1. Breaking the barriers: Changes in support for children and families in Iceland Changing children’s services: challenges for education, social work and health care professionals. Getting it right for every child: Childhood, Citizenship and Children’s Services

4. Population 317.376 people. Nordic type welfare state. High living standard. Economic vulnerability. Iceland is generally considered a relatively peaceful environment

7. My study: The study 2005/2006-2008 The focus is on parents’ perspectives of informal and formal support due to a child’s disability – over time. Their children labelled with disabilities are born between 1974 -2007. This is a time of great changes both in the Icelandic society and in it’s welfare policy.

9. What is a family? Family is a process of interactions and activities between persons who consider themselves as belonging to a family

12. What is a good professional from the parents perspective – and has that changed over time?

13. Parents and professionals Unequal power relationships? Parents: Professionals: as clients as experts as paraprofessionals as transplanters as consumers as service providers as disepowered as empowering as negotiators as negotiators

14. Breaking barriers: Challenges and Empowerment It is not just individual challenge a family challenge a professional’s challenge