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This Literature Review was commissioned by Adoption England’s Regional Adoption Agency (RAA) Leaders’ Group to support practitioners in care planning for children in the UK. This summary document is for use by those directly involved in care planning, and also aims to potentially provide some support for those writing care plans and court reports for children needing permanency away from their family.
Caring for a young child exposed to early trauma, along with caregiving stress and heightened by the impact of lockdowns as a result of the COVID-19 response, may compromise the development of the parent-child relationship. Understanding a foster carer's attachment history and considering relational dynamics through an attachment lens may shed light on areas they need support in, to enhance their parenting capacity for vulnerable children.
The feasibility of collecting and coding observational data and attachment interviews of foster carers and their children, when conducted remotely…
Abstract:
Applying social interdependence theory as a framework for document analysis, this paper considers eight evaluations of an extended care scheme in England known as ‘Staying Close’. Findings suggest that for extended care projects like ‘Staying Close’ to work, any service offer designed to support the transition from residential care to independent living must be seen by the young person, the carer, and the wider social network, as a continuation of earlier efforts to build and nurture a genuinely committed relationship.
A new interrelations model for extended care is…
Whilst it has been suggested that fostering involves being both a parent and a professional, little is known about how foster carers manage these roles. This study aimed to develop an explanatory theory and model of the processes involved in fostering looked after children and the relationship between the roles of parent and professional. Ten foster carers offering intended long-term placements to looked after children and five social care professionals who provide support to foster carers were interviewed. Data were analysed using grounded theory.
A preliminary model was developed which…
Sibling relationships of youth in foster care are often complicated as many youth are separated from their sibling(s) at one point or another. Quantitative studies have identified ways in which sibling placement influences youth outcomes.
Fewer qualitative studies have been conducted to understand youth perspectives about their sibling relationships. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine sibling relationships and sibling separation amongst adults with prior foster care experience. Thematic analysis indicated two overarching themes: ‘Sibling Separation was Common’ and ‘…
The Scottish Parliament’s Social Justice and Social Security Committee has published its latest report on kinship carers, calling for improved support for carers.
This paper presents a community based participatory research project, which adopted a photovoice approach with seven unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) living in foster care in the United Kingdom. The project also included a focus group with six foster carers to explore their perceptions of caring for UASCs. At the end of the focus group we then shared the young people's images from the photovoice project. The purpose of this was to better inform the carers understanding of this group's needs and the reality of their lived experiences, to see if this would have any impact on their…
This study looked at how well matched children in England are to their homes and the extent to which their participation, views, wishes and feelings are considered in the decision-making process. The study looked at a small group of children who have a very wide and diverse set of needs and who live in children’s homes that were visited by Ofsted inspectors in late 2019.
Abstract
Children who have been adopted from care are very likely to have experienced early adversity that may result in psychological trauma. A current debate in the field is whether adoption provides a pathway to healing for traumatised children, helping them to recover from past psychological harm, or creates trauma for children through the very nature of being an adopted child.
Objective
This study aimed to use longitudinal data pertaining to children who had been adopted from care to examine the relationship between being adopted from care and psychological trauma.…
The views and experiences of foster carers and services have been published in a new State of the Nation's Foster Care 2021 report from The Fostering Network.
The findings, based on a survey of foster carers and fostering services across the UK show:
- 86 per cent of foster carers stated that their most recent experience had been positive
- Almost a quarter of foster carers in Scotland said that they are currently caring for a child who they think should be under a long-term foster care arrangement but who is currently not
- The most common reason for an…