Adoption & Fostering
Abstracts
Spring 2005 - Vol 29 (1)
Special issue on 'listening to children'
Guest editorial: Caroline Thomas and Nigel Thomas
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'The best of times, the worst of times': young people's views of care and accommodation
Harriet Ward, Tricia Skuse and Emily R Munro
Key words: consulting children, foster care, residential care
There is much evidence of instability in the care system and poor developmental outcomes for looked after children, but looked after children are far from a homogenous group. Their lives, needs and experiences vary immensely. This article presents the findings from a recent study of children's views of the care system in England (Skuse and Ward, 2003). It explores what children and young people did and did not like about being looked after, why some found it a beneficial experience while others did not, and discusses the reasons for their largely positive responses. Ordinary features of everyday life that peers would usually take for granted, such as having someone to talk to or doing ordinary family things like going to the cinema, were identified as strengths within the care system. These views and the expectations of looked after children need to be considered in the context of their past life experiences.
Harriet Ward is Professor of Social Work, Centre for Child and Family Research,
Loughborough University
Tricia Skuse is a Chartered Psychologist, Bro Morgannwg NHS Trust, Wales
Emily R Munro is a Research Associate, Centre for Child and Family Research, Loughborough University
Joining a new family: the views and experiences of young people placed with permanent families during middle childhood
Cherilyn Dance and Alan Rushton
Key words: adoption, fostering, late permanent placement, children's views, permanent placement, parent-child relationships
The authors report on the views of a group of young people who had joined adoptive or foster families some six years previously when they were between five and 11 years old (the Maudsley Follow-Up Study). The report focuses on the experience of joining a new family, family relationships and feelings of belonging. It was striking that it could take some young people a considerable length of time to feel settled; however, by the follow-up stage the great majority felt very much a part of their family. Several described their placement as an opportunity for a 'new start'. A small minority was less settled and expressed continued discomfort with their adoptive status. The direction of current practice and policy developments with reference to these findings is discussed.
Cherilyn Dance is Senior Research Fellow, University of Luton
Alan Rushton is Reader in Adoption Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London
The voice of the child in family placement decision-making: a developmental model
Gillian Schofield
Key words: developmental model, psychosocial, children's voices
Making sense of children's development, and in particular the impact of maltreatment and loss on children's minds and behaviour, is an essential part both of listening to children and facilitating their participation in family placement decision-making. Gillian Schofield suggests that an understanding of developmental theory can help practitioners to identify children's strengths and difficulties, make sense of children's communications and enable children to feel more valued and effective. A number of key areas of development are linked together into a model that highlights the complex transactional and psychosocial nature of development, while encouraging practitioners to use this knowledge to support and empower children.
Gillian Schofield is Senior Lecturer, School of Social Work and Psychosocial Studies, and Co-Director, Centre for Research on the Child and family, University of East Anglia, Norwich
Listening to young children: experts in their own lives
Alison Clark and June Statham
Key words:young children, listening, fostering, adoption, consultation, participation
Most existing literature on children's participation has focused on their involvement in service planning, delivery and evaluation rather than on children's views of their own world, starting from their interests and concerns. Few studies have considered the views and experiences of young children (under five years old). One of the barriers to this work has been uncertainty about 'how to listen' to children at this age. This article explores the Mosaic approach, a methodology for listening to young children that brings together verbal and visual tools to reveal young children's perspectives. The material produced by the children provides a platform for communication between adults and children. Examples are given from two research studies that took place in early childhood institutions in the UK. These illustrate how young children used cameras and participatory activities such as tours and map-making to highlight important people, places and events and to share their views with adults. The discussion focuses on the possible applications of this approach for young children who experience fostering and adoption, including the potential for young children to document and to communicate the important details of their present as well as past lives.
Alison Clark is Research Officer, Thomas Coram Research Unit, London
June Statham is Reader in Education and Family Support, Thomas Coram Research Unit, London
Children and young people's participation and non-participation in research
Cathy Murray
Key words: children and young people, participation, non-participation, gatekeepers, access
This article considers the involvement of children and young people in research in the field of adoption and fostering in the UK, based on a review in 2004 of the Quality Protects bibliographic database. The database comprises details of 182 research studies conducted since 1991, of which 72 were categorised as relevant to adoption and fostering. Of these, 38 (53 per cent) involved children and young people in the process. Three aspects of participation and non-participation in research are considered. First, researchers' reasons for involving children and young people are outlined. Secondly, the role of gatekeepers is examined. When embarking on the review, it had been anticipated that ethical and methodological concerns would be the key challenges to involving children and young people in research. However, gatekeepers emerged from the research outputs as equally significant. It is argued that while gatekeeping is played out in specific research projects as an apparently individualised response, it reflects the pervasiveness of a protectionist model of children and young people over a citizen-with-rights model. Thirdly, the strategies that researchers employed to increase the likelihood of children and young people's participation are reported.
Cathy Murray is Lecturer in Social Policy, Department of Applied Social Science, University of Stirling
Has anything really changed? Managers' views of looked after children's participation in 1997 and 2004
Nigel Thomas
Key words: children, looked after, participation
A postal survey of local authority child care managers was conducted in 1997-98 as part of a study of children's participation in decision-making in care. The same survey was repeated, with minor variations, in 2004. Nigel Thomas compares what managers said about policy and practice in their local authorities in the two studies. The results suggest that there have been significant perceived changes in the way in which local authorities seek to engage children and young people in the provision of child care services.
Nigel Thomas is Senior Lecturer in Childhood Studies, University of Wales Swansea
Promoting the human rights of children and young people: the 'Investing in Children' experience
Liam Cairns and Maria Brannen
Key words: children, human rights, participation
As long children and young people remain politically voiceless and powerless, there will be little change to their status in society. The authors reflect upon their experience of attempting to promote an alternative discourse within which children and young people are seen as active citizens, who are knowledgeable about their world and able to play a full part in decision-making processes that affect them. They draw upon case studies from a project called 'Investing in Children' to illustrate promising developments as well as some of the obstacles in their path.
Liam Cairns is Co-ordinator of Investing in Children, County Durham
Maria Brannen is Children's Rights Officer for Durham County Council
Legal notes: England and Wales
Deborah Cullen
Legal notes: Scotland
Alexandra Plumtree
Legal notes: Northern Ireland
Kerry O'Halloran
Health notes: 'I just knew to keep it quiet . . .' Living with parental problematic substance use
Valerie Corbett
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