{"title":"The biographic and professional influences on adoption and fostering panel members’ recommendation-making","authors":"Arlene Weekes","doi":"10.1177/03085759211058359","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03085759211058359","url":null,"abstract":"In the UK, decisions to approve adoptive parents and foster carers and authorise adoptions rest with specialist panels. While their formal role and function are clear, there is concern that their composition and the biographies and background characteristics of members could introduce bias and influence the decisions made. This article examines the validity of these criticisms with findings from a study of eight agencies, 15 panels and 22 members. It was found that the panel system achieves its aims in terms of having a representative constitution and providing considered recommendations in a timely manner to senior managers, but that individual biography affects panel members in carrying out their role to an unexpectedly high degree, possibly leading to flawed decisions. Actions to remedy this problem, at both an individual and group level, are suggested.","PeriodicalId":92743,"journal":{"name":"Adoption & fostering","volume":"7 1","pages":"382 - 397"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75255187","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mental health and behavioural difficulties in adopted children: A systematic review of post-adoption risk and protective factors","authors":"Morvwen Duncan, M. Woolgar, R. Ransley, P. Fearon","doi":"10.1177/03085759211058358","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03085759211058358","url":null,"abstract":"Previous research suggests that adopted children are at a greater risk of experiencing psychological and behavioural difficulties or accessing mental health services than non-adopted peers and that post-adoption variables are significant risk and protective factors producing this situation. This review seeks to summarise the post-adoption variables associated with adopted children’s mental health or behavioural difficulties to inform future research and shape interventions. A search for publications that assess associated risk and protective factors using Web of Science, Psychinfo, Medline and Sociological Abstracts identified 52 studies that met rigorous methodological criteria. Children’s and adolescents’ mental health and behavioural outcomes were associated with parent, parent–child and wider family factors and by contextual variables. The findings highlight the importance of focusing on the multitude of systemic factors surrounding a child following adoption. Clinical implications and direction for future research are discussed.","PeriodicalId":92743,"journal":{"name":"Adoption & fostering","volume":"250 1","pages":"414 - 429"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76300359","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
F. Macleod, Lesley Storey, T. Rushe, M. Kavanagh, Francis Agnew, K. McLaughlin
{"title":"How adopters’ and foster carers’ perceptions of ‘family’ affect communicative openness in post-adoption contact interactions","authors":"F. Macleod, Lesley Storey, T. Rushe, M. Kavanagh, Francis Agnew, K. McLaughlin","doi":"10.1177/03085759211060715","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03085759211060715","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the constructions of communicative openness following adoption. Data from three waves of interviews with six adoptive mothers and four foster carers were collected, transcribed verbatim and analysed in keeping with a social constructivist grounded theory methodology. The results show that the way ‘family’ is constructed can both facilitate and impede communicative openness. Those who hold a fluid, child-centred concept of family, are willing to construct it as different and can accept the ebb and flow of family membership intuitively and view such openness as a natural part of caring for children. Those with a more traditional, nuclear construction of family may associate adoption with fear, a sense of biological related competition and the need to control the controllable, all of which act as barriers to communicative openness. The study demonstrates that communicative openness is person and context sensitive and emphasises the need to think creatively and flexibly about the very nature of family.","PeriodicalId":92743,"journal":{"name":"Adoption & fostering","volume":"83 1","pages":"430 - 441"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80706973","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Things Foster Carers Need to Know: Full series","authors":"Camelia Chowdhury","doi":"10.1177/20533691211060702","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20533691211060702","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":92743,"journal":{"name":"Adoption & fostering","volume":"60 1","pages":"463 - 464"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89175243","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"NEW CALL FOR PAPERS","authors":"","doi":"10.1177/03085759211063853","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03085759211063853","url":null,"abstract":"Given the growing evidence and scientific consensus about global warming, companies are challenged by a multitude of climate change related costs, risks, benefits, and opportunities which require measures and assessments. Climate change related risks such as uninsurable risks from unpredictable weather conditions, as well as new governmental regulations, like the EU Emission Trading System, carbon taxes, new building codes and energy efficiency standards can substantially influence competitiveness. Climate change may impact water supply, land use patterns, migration and significantly modify the business environment. Carbon neutral products and carbon clean production have become strategic business opportunities, which can help companies to improve their competitiveness and their triple bottom line corporate sustainability. They can accomplish such improvements through the development of innovative products, product-service-combinations as well as business and market development that are designed to help societies made real progress towards short and long-term sustainability, not just short-term single bottom line profits.","PeriodicalId":92743,"journal":{"name":"Adoption & fostering","volume":"51 1","pages":"469 - 470"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75606146","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Kinship Care: State of the Nation Survey 2021","authors":"R. Bullock","doi":"10.1177/03085759211060703","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03085759211060703","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":92743,"journal":{"name":"Adoption & fostering","volume":"92 1","pages":"461 - 462"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88113188","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Looked after children in an inner-city London borough: Health needs identified at the Initial Health Assessment (IHA)","authors":"","doi":"10.1177/03085759211060709","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03085759211060709","url":null,"abstract":"Children enter local authority care in the UK for many different reasons. The main one recorded in official statistics is ‘abuse and neglect’ which applies to 60% of admissions and the health implications of such adverse experiences are obvious. Other reasons, such as disability, family dysfunction, acute stress and difficult behaviour, also carry similar risks which may be less salient. While looked after children have many of the same health issues as their peers, the impact of past experiences on their health is likely to be greater than for other children in society. Local authorities have a legal duty under the Children Act 1989 to safeguard and promote the health and welfare of all the children they look after whatever their needs. This variety in the reasons for care admissions means that the population of looked after children is extremely diverse. With regard to age, for example, a snapshot of those in care in the UK at any one time shows that nearly a quarter of them are aged over 15 years and only 5% under one year old, suggesting a plethora of late teenage rather than paediatric health problems. But the statistics for admissions to care over a 12-month period show a different picture, with 20% of the children entering care in their first year of life. When these characteristics are combined with the types of needs and their shortand long-term implications, the range of children’s possible health problems becomes clear, as does their likely complexity. This is also a major public health issue as in the UK 100,000 children are looked after at any one time and many more move in and out of the care system each year. In this note we present the findings of an audit into the identification of the health needs at the Initial Health Assessment (IHA) of children entering care. We describe these together with subsequent actions. We also specifically attend to the specific health problems of the oldest cohort (16–17-years-old) as identified at the IHA.","PeriodicalId":92743,"journal":{"name":"Adoption & fostering","volume":"2 1","pages":"455 - 460"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81715216","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Northern Ireland","authors":"","doi":"10.1177/03085759211063474a","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03085759211063474a","url":null,"abstract":"In 2016, when PE was between four and six weeks old, he sustained serious injuries on at least two separate occasions. A subsequent court hearing in 2019 found that ‘[The mother] was aware that [the father] used cannabis and had a sleep pattern which rendered him incapable of providing good enough night-time care as frequently as this was delegated to him’ and that the father had inflicted the injuries on the child (including fractures to the ribs and bleeding to the brain and eyes, due to being shaken) which necessitated his hospitalisation. The judge had then recorded that:","PeriodicalId":92743,"journal":{"name":"Adoption & fostering","volume":"94 1","pages":"446 - 451"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83900863","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Delphine West, Anita Roelands, L. Van Hove, J. Vanderfaeillie, Laura Gypen, F. Van Holen
{"title":"Positive parenting in foster care: A video-feedback intervention to promote positive parenting – theory and practice","authors":"Delphine West, Anita Roelands, L. Van Hove, J. Vanderfaeillie, Laura Gypen, F. Van Holen","doi":"10.1177/03085759211055359","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03085759211055359","url":null,"abstract":"Foster children are known to be at high risk for developing attachment problems. Moreover, their associated behavioural problems can be a burden for the foster family and increase the risk of placement breakdown. A sensitive parenting style promotes a secure attachment which, in turn, can reduce the chance of difficulties arising and protect against placement disruption. Interventions using video-feedback of parent–child interactions offer a method of increasing parental sensitivity and improving the quality of the parent–child attachment. The intervention discussed in this article was part of a wider initiative, Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP-SD), fashioned to promote sensitive parenting, secure attachment and a reduction in children’s behavioural problems. Its effectiveness has been shown for a variety of target groups. A variant of the approach was developed specifically for foster and adopted children, Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline – Foster Care/Adoption (VIPP-FC/A). This article discusses the design and delivery of the intervention and illustrates these with case material.","PeriodicalId":92743,"journal":{"name":"Adoption & fostering","volume":"4 1","pages":"398 - 413"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75858755","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Exploring the educational experiences of children and young people adopted from care: Using the voices of children and parents to inform practice","authors":"Rebecca Best, C. Cameron, V. Hill","doi":"10.1177/03085759211043255","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03085759211043255","url":null,"abstract":"National monitoring data and research suggest that British adopted children achieve poorer educational outcomes and experience higher levels of emotional, social and learning difficulties in school, compared to the general population. However, few studies have elicited the perspectives of adopted children and adoptive parents in relation to school experiences. The current study used a qualitative design to explore the lived educational experiences of adopted children through semi-structured interviews with 11 secondary-aged adoptees and a focus group with six adopters. Thematic analysis identified five themes within the narratives of the adoptees and adopters: inner turmoil; social disconnection; unsupportive school contexts; relational repair; and misperceptions and prejudice. These findings were presented to 20 Designated Teachers (DTs) within a workshop to explore how the experiences of the adoptees and adopters can be used to inform their role. Three themes were found, which illustrate broad implications for DTs’ practice with adopted children and adoptive parents in schools: raising awareness; developing relationships; and supporting emotional needs. Key implications for schools, post-adoption support services and policymakers are discussed.","PeriodicalId":92743,"journal":{"name":"Adoption & fostering","volume":"17 1","pages":"359 - 381"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87851455","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}