Adoption & Fostering

Steve Farnfield describes a modification of the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP), commonly used in the assessment of infant and pre-school children's attachment, for use in the assessment of sibling relationships. The modified SSP was developed for use in cases where social workers had to decide whether or not to split up groups of siblings for placement in adoptive or long-term foster homes. However, it can also be applied as an aid to understanding sibling interactions in other contexts as well as the attachment of siblings to one another and to birth or substitute parents. Following some practical and theoretical comments, an account of the procedure is given together with case examples.

Why does well-intentioned policy fail to translate into positive outcomes for children in care? The Government has made significant investment to improve educational attainment and placement stability for looked after children, yet gains have been disappointing and children in care are still achieving far below their peers. Multi-agency working and better communication between professionals are seen as a prerequisite for improving outcomes. Paula Conway explores why this commendable policy recommendation often results in splits, divisions, rivalries and, paradoxically, a failure to communicate within and between services for vulnerable children, sometimes with devastating consequences. Complaints abound and a culture of blame is endemic. Without a deeper understanding of how traumatised young people communicate their disturbance, and how the individuals and systems around the child respond, this well-intentioned policy will always be at risk of breaking down at vulnerable ‘fault lines’; in the system, with children's needs falling into the gaps. It is suggested that, for the project of multi-agency work to be effective in improving outcomes for looked after children, the psychoanalytic concepts of splitting and projection need to be integrated and applied at all levels of policy development and service provision.

Julie Selwyn, Sarah del Tufo and Lesley Frazer report on an evaluation of the It's a Piece of Cake? training programme provided by Adoption UK. The programme, unusually, is delivered by professional trainers who are themselves adopters. The immediate impact of the training was an increase in adopters' confidence and a wider repertoire of skills in managing difficult behaviour. The effects of the programme seemed to have continued for some time for adopters who were not parenting children with multiple and overlapping difficulties. For them Cake was rarely enough. The group setting for the learning — enabling parents to discuss difficult issues with other adopters — was viewed as very important. Many parents had made lasting friendships that were a continuing source of support.

John Randall summarises the findings of an in-house study undertaken by Families for Children, a voluntary adoption agency based in the southwest of England. It took a consecutive sample of 103 children placed from care for adoption between 2003 and 2005, using Matching Needs and Services, a method designed for analysing need in child care populations and developing services best suited to meeting them. The study identified nine need groups of varying degrees of complexity and looked at the service responses to those identified needs. The children placed came from 41 local authorities ranging from nearby local authorities to the wider southwest, London and the southeast, the Midlands and the north of England. The sample offers a snapshot of the contemporary challenges presented by children placed for adoption from care.

David Pitcher explores how the parents of adopters respond to the role of adoptive grandparent and describes adoptive family life from the perspective of three generations. The research involved both a quantitative study (n = 236) and a qualitative study of six white British families, in which grandparents, parents and children were interviewed. The study concludes that grandparents are significant, not primarily for practical support but in their symbolic function. It is proposed that the concept of grandparents being ‘fun’ that has developed in contemporary British culture enables them to represent approval and acceptance. For parents, they are significant as ‘approving witnesses’ to this new family. The account concludes by suggesting how the three-generational perspective described can contribute to the assessment and support of adoptive families. Further studies could test whether this pattern can be seen in other cultural contexts or family types.

Meeting the increasing demand for foster care homes is well recognised internationally and in Australia as a continual challenge. Understanding the needs of foster carers and supporting them to undertake this important work is a key element of meeting this demand. Lorraine Thomson and Morag McArthur report on the re-analysis of data from a small study of former foster carers who ceased fostering between 2004 and 2007 in the Australian Capital Territory. Interviews with former carers about their experiences as foster carers revealed themes of loss and uncertainty that alerted researchers to the possibility that the theory of family boundary ambiguity and ambiguous loss may be useful in understanding foster caring experiences. It is suggested that these concepts warrant further exploration and research in the area of foster care. With sensitive application, they may assist foster families, former foster carers, foster care workers and policy makers to understand more fully and respond to some of the challenging experiences of foster caring.