Permanent family placement during middle childhood: outcomes and support

A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of LutonAppropriate long-term care arrangements for children whose birth families are unable or unwilling to raise them is one of the most critical issues confronting providers of children's social services. Knowing something of the longer term outcomes of different types of provision, the factors associated with differential outcomes and requirements for additional services will all assist in the development of practice and policy in this field. This document reports on a decade of publications arising from just such an applied programme of research, to which I have made a significant contribution in terms of research design, data collection, analysis of data and dissemination through both publication and other means. These publications represent a unique and original contribution to the field in terms of methodology and the analysis approach, the samples studied and the relevance of the findings to the policy and practice world. The majority of the publications focus on a sample of children placed for permanence during their middle childhoods, that is children placed between the ages of five and eleven years. This cohort was followed-up at one-and six-years after placement. Some of the findings from the early works were then explored in more depth in subsequent publications. The contribution to knowledge that is evidenced by these publications is reinforced by the use of longitudinal and prospective methods to address some of the weaknesses of previous work in this area. By focussing particularly on children placed during middle childhood, the works have added considerably to the knowledge base concerning permanent family placement for children. This is true not only in looking at disruption rates but also in terms of the factors associated with poorer outcomes among continuing placements in the short-and medium-term. In particular, several of the papers draw attention to the identification of what may prove to be a very important experience in the backgrounds of some looked after children -preferential rejection. This term has been coined to describe children who have been 'singled-out', within a sibling group, for negative attention from birth parents and who are alone in entering the care system. Although numbers were relatively small, the association between this experience and poor outcome in the later permanent placement was found to be highly significant, and held across time, within the samples studied. The papers, taken together, have also substantially informed the debate on likely support and intervention requirements of placed children and their new families and at least one of the selected publications has contributed specifically and significantly to government policy making

Finding Adoptive Families for Children in Care: Perspectives from the US and England

In this session, which is intended as an opportunity to reflect on adoption policy and practice, Kathy and Cherilyn will consider the way in which adoption has become a permanence option for some groups of children in care in the US and in England. They will explore briefly the profiles of children adopted from care and touch on similarities and differences in legislation, policy, process and practice in the two countries. The main focus of the session will be on current issues and tensions associated with finding families for children in a timely way. Topics to be discussed will include assessment of parental capacity and care planning for children within the Human Rights framework, practitioner values and beliefs, delays for children and the impact of new technology and adopter-initiated matching

Family Finding and Matching in Adoption: What Helps to Make a Good Match?

This study compared the effectiveness and outcomes of different family finding methods in adoption in England, over-selecting harder to place children. The case files of 149 children with adoption recommendations in ten local authorities were reviewed and a sub-sample of sixty-seven cases were followed in real time, through interviews with professionals and families until six months after adoptive placement. Most matches were of good quality, but 14 per cent were fair and 13 per cent poor, involving serious compromises on matching requirements or adopters' preferences. There were more poor matches when in-house placements were made or children's difficulties were underplayed with new parents and, necessarily, more compromises were made when matching children with significant health or developmental needs. More good quality matches were made when case responsibility was transferred early to the adoption team. Poorer quality matches were related to poorer outcomes six months after adoptive placement. To improve matching, searches for families need to be widened early to avoid delays and to maximise the pool of adopters. Formal processes to track and review the progress of adoptions for children with complex needs (including matching meetings) can help avoid delay and ensure that a group of professionals, rather than an individual professional, makes key decisions

Support for adoption placements: the first six months

Adoption can provide stability and improved outcomes for looked after children, but the support needs of adoptive families range from financial support to managing difficult behaviours and attachment problems. This study looks at the use of services and associated costs over a six-month period through data collected from nineteen adoptive parents six months after a child (average age twenty-three months) had been placed with them for adoption and at the patterns of service needs, usefulness of services and satisfaction with services, supplemented with data from twenty-seven families who were interviewed about their experience of post-adoption support. In line with previous research findings, the core element of support was provided by social workers and over a third of families received financial support from social service departments. Involvement of specialist services such as mental health professionals and educational support was low, probably because of the children’s young age. Satisfaction with the support provided by social workers varied and depended on their relationship with the parents. The mean public sector cost of services was £2,842 (range £980–£6,270) and most costs were borne by children’s social services. These support costs compare favourably with other placement options such as children’s homes or foster-care

Experiences of hospice and substance use professionals: End of Life Care for People with Alcohol and Drug Problems

This report presents the findings of one strand of a research study entitled ‘End of Life Care for People with Drug or Alcohol Problems’. It focusses on people working in hospices or in substance use services as paid staff or volunteers, and their experiences of supporting people who have both substance use and end of life care needs

Alcohol Care Teams: summary of a review for Manchester

This summary reports on a review and research project that brings together evidence from policy guidance, research and evaluation literature and stakeholder testimony as relevant to the response to alcohol problems in acute secondary care settings with a particular focus on the role and operation of alcohol care teams. The main report includes research focused on the current and service needs for ACT and care pathway development and reduction in frequent attender burden. This report summarises the public domain evidence transferable to other service development in England

The outcomes of late permanent placements: the adolescent years

Using interview and questionnaire data based on a sample of 133 late-placed adoption and permanent foster care placements, Alan Rushton and Cherilyn Dance report on the outcomes of their prospective study as the children arrive at their teenage years (range 11-16). After a year, the young people remained with their new families in 92 per cent of cases and six years later 71 per cent of families were still together, a rate which is largely consistent with similar research samples. The disruptions took place at all points, but on average occurred at 34 months after placement. The reasons for placement endings were examined and differences between the disrupted and the 'continuing but unhappy' placements were explored. In the continuing placements, the parents' views of their experiences fell into three groups: the happy throughout, the happy now but not always so, and the largely negative responses. Most of the parents in the latter group were still being severely tested by developmental and behavioural problems, including aggression, destructiveness and over-activity