Adoption & Fostering
Abstracts

Autumn 2002 - Vol 26 (3)

Adoption reform: managing diversity and delay
Margaret Bell, Kate Wilson and Marilyn Crawshaw

While many aspects of current government policy on adoption are welcome, there is concern that some key issues in the adoption process are not adequately addressed in the Adoption and Children Bill, 2001, and that the use of quantitative targets will not necessarily support the good practice identified. Bell et al consider, in particular, two areas of difficulty in the selection and preparation process: managing diversity, and delay. Their study highlights the need for practitioners to be flexible and open in their approach to shared assessments, and for agencies to have robust formal and informal communication systems which are transparent and accountable to users.

Margaret Bell is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of York
Kate Wilson is Professor of Social Work at the University of Nottingham
Marilyn Crawshaw is Teaching Fellow in Social Work at the University of York

The authors look at an innovative fostering project in Shanghai, which places children from a large children’s institution. They consider placement outcomes for 220 children placed over a two-year period. A number of variables are discussed which might impact on placement outcomes, including age, gender, level of disability, length of time spent in the institution and age at time of placement. The length of time spent in institutional care and age at placement were found to be predictors of the placements breaking down during the first few year after placement. Younger children moved quickly into foster homes were most likely to settle there successfully. This finding is in accord with other studies that have found that early institutional care can have adverse long term consequences for development. This pattern, it is suggested, does not necessarily reflect poor physical care within the institution. It may simply be a consequence of the fact that an environment of this kind cannot provide the kinds of relationships which are necessary for optimal development. The authors believe that looking at placement outcomes for projects of this kind provides a valuable opportunity to learn more about children's vulnerabilities and about the kinds of post-placement support which are needed.

Chris Beckett is Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Anglia Polytechnic University (APU), Cambridge
June Thoburn is Professor of Social Work at the University of East Anglia, Norwich

An unexpected reversal: charting the course of international adoption in Brazil
Claudia Fonseca

During the 1990s there was a dramatic fall in intercountry adoptions of Brazilian children - from over 2,000 per annum at the beginning of the decade to under 400 at the decade’s close. On the basis of documentary material, Fonseca outlines possible reasons for this drop, considering hypotheses linked to the international market of adoptable children, legal restrictions on intercountry adoption imposed by the Brazilian government, and, finally, scandals in the mass media which stigmatise local intermediaries and officials involved in this activity.

Claudia Fonseca is Professor of Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Achieving permanency through adoption: following in US footsteps?
Julie Selwyn and Wendy Sturgess

In the past six years, both England and the USA have called for radical overhauls of their adoption systems. These include not only changes to delivery service but also increased monitoring and accountability in order to achieve national child welfare goals. Drawing upon a report examining international adoption policy and practice commissioned by the Cabinet Office for the Prime Minister’s review of adoption, Selwyn and Sturgess compare the problems identified in the two countries’ systems for looked after children and examine the early impact of the US legislation. .

Julie Selwyn and Wendy Sturgess are members of the Hadley Centre for Adoption and Foster Care Studies at the University of Bristol

Class action litigation: judicial reform of child welfare systems in the United States
Marcia Robinson Lowry, Madelyn Freundlich and Sarah Gerstenzang

Robinson Lowry et al examine the use of class action litigation as a strategy to reform child welfare systems in the United States. They describe the historical roots of the use of class action litigation to reform service systems and the development of this strategy specifically in relation to child welfare systems. They examine the debate about the value of class action litigation as a mechanism for reforming child welfare systems. Finally, the article discusses the typical phases of class action lawsuits against child welfare systems and looks at some of the outcomes of this type of litigation.

Marcia Robinson Lowry is Executive Director of Children’s Rights, New York
Madelyn Freundlich is Policy Director and Sarah Gerstenzang is Policy Associate of the same organisation

The educational expectation of looked after children
Amber Elliott

Elliott’s research aimed to investigate one factor that may contribute to the under-achievement of children in care. A group of high school teachers were selected to participate in a study to examine whether there were differences in teacher expectations of looked after children and their peers, as measured on seven educational factors. Participants were divided randomly into two groups and given one of two questionnaires. One asked about children with whom the teacher generally had contact, the other asked specifically about looked after children. Neither group was aware that another questionnaire existed. There was found to be a significant difference in teacher expectation on questions measuring the likelihood of handing in homework consistently and the propensity to be the victim of bullying. Teachers did not have significantly different expectations of looked after children and non looked after children on four other measures of behaviour: academic performance, attendance and being the perpetrator of bullying behaviour.

At the time of submitting this article Amber Elliott was an assistant psychologist, Department of Clinical Psychology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kings Lynn

Plus Legal & Medical Notes, Newspoints, Book Reviews, Abstracts And Diary