Promoting Foster Carer Strengths: Suggestions for Strengths-Based Practice

Sixty-eight per cent of looked after children in the UK are in foster care. Children in foster care benefit from continuity. Sometimes, due to worker turnover and workloads, that continuity comes not from a social worker but from a foster carer. Thus, children in foster care can develop significant attachments to their carers, who are likely to have a valuable role to play in long-term planning for a child. A strengths approach to fostering social work places value on the input of carers as experts on a child, but the social work research literature reveals limited information about the use of such an approach in supervising foster carers. This article by Tim Odell builds on recent writing and suggests that the strengths perspective could be of value in working with foster carers, just as it has been in other settings. A case study examines the process of moving on for one child and how social workers and carers worked together to take a creative approach for a child with a history of multiple placements. This case study illustrates elements of a strengths-based approach. Suggestions for further application of such a model with foster carers are made, and areas for further practice research identified.