Children In Foster Care

Researchers, practitioners, journalists and politicians increasingly recognise that foster care throughout the world is in a state of crisis. There are more and more children needing care and, as residential alternatives dry up, more of these children are being assigned to foster families. This book reports the major findings of a two-year longitudinal study of 235 such children who entered the foster care system in Southern Australia between 1998 and 1999. As well as examining the changing policy context of children's services, the book documents the psychosocial outcomes for these children, their feedback on their experiences of care, and the views of their social workers and carers. In the process, the book examines some cherished beliefs about foster care policy and sheds new light on them. The research reveals that while most children do quite well in foster care up to the two-year point, there is a worrying amount of placement instability at a time when the concentration of emotionally troubled children in care is increasing throughout the western world. Although, surprisingly, placement instability does not appear to produce psychosocial impairment for a period of up to eight months in care, it has an extreme effect on children who are moved from placement to placement because no carer will tolerate their behaviour. These children are consigned to a life of distribution and emotional upheaval because of the lack of alternative forms of care. Another unexpected finding of the research is that increasing the rate of parental contact achieves little or nothing in relation to the likelihood of family reunification. As child welfare increasingly enters a world of research-based practice, Children in Foster Care provides some much needed hard evidence of how foster care policy and practice can be improved.

Drawing on the findings of the largest recent study into foster care in the UK, and including quotes from children themselves, this book examines the impact on children three years after they have left foster care.

Glen, Dennis and Murray Storrings were young children in the 1940s when they were made wards of the child welfare department in British Columbia. In the following years, the three brothers would live in over a hundred foster homes between them, sometimes together but often separated. After a childhood of instability, abuse, and neglect, they turned to lives of crime and were sent to reform schools and prisons before eventually becoming hardworking men who married and had children of their own. In their early years, an ever-changing network of social workers kept meticulous files, and this riveting memoir weaves together the Storrings brothers’ memories, with entries from their case files, to tell the harrowing, heart-breaking yet inspiring story of three boys who were repeatedly failed by a system that was meant to protect them.

In the first chapter of Foster Care: Global Issues, Challenges and Perspectives of the 21st Century, the authors explore modern research regarding children of foster parents around the world, including an overview of literature and the use of an online virtual platform to connect the fostering community. Experts from Canada, the United States, Ireland, Sweden, Australia, and the United Kingdom offered up their knowledge on children of foster parents as well as recommendations for the well-being of said children. Next, a study exploring the implementation of a kinship search program in a child welfare agency is presented in order to determine its benefits. The authors conclude that Kinship Researchers are generally perceived as respectful, helpful, beneficial, and valuable. Additionally, child welfare policy is examined. Later, the essential practice of traditional kinship foster care in Ghana is explored, including current legal provisions, public perception, potential challenges, and future recommendations. The authors also discuss the phenomenon of runaway youth in the foster care system. Due to the fact that children in the foster care system are twice as likely to display runaway indicators than those in the general population, this is a significant issue that warrants understanding. A description of running away in the foster care system is rendered, along with the ramifications that may occur for on-the-run youth. The next chapter deliberates on a study regarding children in out-of-home care in South Korea, comparing the service status of different placement types in terms of developmental outcomes of the children. The results indicate that children in foster care thought of their caregivers and environments more positively than those in institutional care over a period of two years. The following chapter discusses a variety of federal and state laws that address children who were abused and consequently served by the child welfare system. The authors use case studies of foster youth to demonstrate how the law has been used to secure the services, support, and resources needed to place foster youth on a pathway to a more positive future. The final chapter outlines an approach known as, Watch me Play! which encourages supported child-led play in acknowledgement of extensive training needs in the social care workforce. The authors also discuss the potential impact of exploratory and symbolic play to child development, attachment, and communication.

This volume brings together a selection of the most influential and informative English language refereed journal articles on children in out-of-home care, their birth relatives and carers. The articles, which include empirical research and critiques of policy and practice, are mainly from the UK and USA, but include some coverage of child placement policy and practice in Australia and mainland Europe. The volume starts with a joint introductory chapter by the two distinguished authors (one American, one British) reviewing the state of knowledge on children in care and drawing attention to other important sources not included as chapters.

Since the beginnings of its development in Britain in 1987, the Looking After Children (LAC) initiative has had a profound influence in Canada-as well as in Australia and across Europe-in sharpening the developmental focus and improving the quality of services for children and adolescents who, because of abuse, neglect, extreme poverty, or other circumstances, live in out-of-home care. Promoting Resilience in Child Welfare presents reviews of research, new empirical findings, and useful practice and policy suggestions derived from the perspectives of LAC and resilience theory by an array of international voices. Practitioners, out-of-home care providers, youths in care, in-service trainers, students, researchers, and many others will find much in this book that speaks to more effective ways of improving the lives of young people being looked after in out-of-home care. (Midwest).

Maintaining Family Ties examines the behavior of children in foster care and their expressed feelings related to separation from their families. Chapter One presents theories of separation and self-concept relevant to children in care. Chapter Two reviews research knowledge from empirical studies and practice experience. Chapters Three, Four, and Five describe and discuss the qualitative findings from workers' discussions on supervision, including children's reactions to supervision, workers' interventions, and agency influences on the handling of separation. Chapter Six draws conclusions and offers recommendations.