Search results for ‘Subject term:"looked after children"’ Sort:
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Beyond the Adoption Order: an investigation of adoption disruption in Wales: research report
- Authors:
- WIJEDASA Dinithi, SELWYN Julie
- Publisher:
- University of Bristol. Hadley Centre for Adoption and Foster Care Studies
- Publication year:
- 2014
- Pagination:
- 53
- Place of publication:
- Bristol
Sets out the rate of, and reasons for, adoption disruption after an Adoption Order had been granted in Wales. This study used a quantitative research design to meet the research objectives, using government data on all children who had been looked after and adopted between 1st April 2002 and 31st March 2012. The stability of adoption has been seen as one of its strengths, but the long-term permanence of adoptive placements in the UK has been unknown and social workers lack reliable information to aid them in making decisions about permanence. This study shows that over an 11 year follow-up period, the Welsh national adoption disruption rate was 2.6 per cent, which indicated that about 3 in 100 adoptions would disrupt over an 11 year period. The rate of adoption post order disruption in England was very similar, where the cumulative risk of disruption over a 12 year period was that about 3 in 100. The Cox regression model indicated that older age at placement, a higher number of moves in care before being placed for adoption and a lengthier time period between placement and the Adoption Order were all predictors of adoption disruption. The majority of disruptions were when children were over 11 years of age. Services are therefore needed for teenagers and those parenting teens. (Edited publisher abstract)
Staying connected: the views of looked after children and young people on their contact arrangements
- Authors:
- LEWIS Shirley, SELWYN Julie, BRIGHT SPOTS
- Publisher:
- Coram Voice
- Publication year:
- 2022
- Pagination:
- 41
- Place of publication:
- London
This report explores children and young people's satisfaction and views about contact with their birth family and other key people in their lives. Between 2015 and 2020, 36 local authorities (LAs) in England and six LAs in Wales used the Bright Spots surveys with their looked after children and young people. Over 7,500 children and young people in care share their views and experiences on contact arrangements with their families. The report finds that nearly a third (31%) of children (aged 8-10) and a quarter (25%) of young people (aged 11-18) felt they were seeing their mothers too little, whilst over a fifth (22%) of children and 18% of young people felt they were seeing their fathers too little. 22% of children didn't feel they had enough contact with their brothers and sisters, and this figure was higher for young people (31%). About one in five young people had no contact with either parent and this was particularly the case for those in residential care and boys. Visits being arranged at inconvenient times, long distances, the costs of travel, their family's circumstances, and workers failing to make necessary arrangements were among reasons cited by children and young people for seeing family less often than they wanted. Children in care who felt they saw family members too little reported feeling sad, angry and unsettled, while in contrast, those who felt contact arrangements were "just right" felt they were being listened to and looked forward to seeing their family. Analysis shows that young people (aged 11-18) in residential care more frequently reported that they had too little contact with family compared to young people in other types of placements. The number of placements experienced also had an impact, with 60% of young people who had only had one placement reporting they were satisfied with their contact frequency, compared to 39% who had experienced 11 or more placements. (Edited publisher abstract)
The poor relations? Children and informal kinship carers speak out: a summary research report
- Authors:
- SELWYN Julie, et al
- Publisher:
- University of Bristol
- Publication year:
- 2013
- Pagination:
- 90
- Place of publication:
- Bristol
This summary report focuses on children and carers’ experience of informal kinship care, drawing on the results from a multi-method approach to consider from children’s perspectives, what it is like to be brought up by relatives or friends. The views and experiences of their informal kinship carers were also considered. Eighty children and their carers were interviewed in the four UK countries. The children’s semi-structured interview contained four main themes: moving to live with a relative; belonging; relationships with family and friends; and wellbeing. The carers were asked about their decision to become a kinship carer; the difficulties of parenting; their own health using a standardised measure; and the pressures they faced and the support they needed and received. The findings show that the kinship carers’ commitment to the children they were caring for provided them with psychological security and stability. As a result, the children were doing well on the measures used and considerably better than ‘looked after’ children. Nonetheless, a third of the children and young people had serious behavioural and emotional difficulties, which was not surprising given their experiences of abuse and neglect when living with their parents. The study highlighted that carers were frequently pushed into poverty by taking on the children. They were often older people, many were socially isolated and two-thirds were clinically depressed. For a third, their lives were restricted by pain. Carers talked about the high levels of stress they experienced and their feelings of having lost their own lives and sense of themselves. Most received no financial allowance from children’s services as their willingness to step up to take care of the children allowed local authorities to view these as private arrangements, no matter how severe the maltreatment or other difficulties that they had experienced. The report calls for a whole system change to replace the current arrangements for kinship care and makes specific recommendations for the government, services and relevant agencies and organisations. (Edited publisher abstract)
Kinship care in the UK: using census data to estimate the extent of formal and informal care by relatives
- Authors:
- SELWYN Julie, NANDY Shailen
- Journal article citation:
- Child and Family Social Work, 19(1), 2014, pp.44-54.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Using microdata from the 2001 UK Population Census this study examines the extent of kinship care in the UK and the characteristics of kinship carers and children. Figures are presented by the UK as a whole and the individual countries of the UK. The findings demonstrate that most children in kinship care are growing up in informal unregulated arrangements rather than ‘looked-after’ children placed with formal approved kinship foster carers. They also look at children's relationship to their kinship carers, characteristics of kinship carers, and the health status of carers. Implications for policy and practice are discussed. (Original abstract)
Pathways to adoption for minority ethnic children in England – reasons for entry to care
- Authors:
- SELWYN Julie, WIJEDSA Dinithi
- Journal article citation:
- Child and Family Social Work, 16(3), August 2011, pp.276-286.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Some minority ethnic children are over-represented in the care system and under-represented among those going forward to adoption. The aim of this study was to understand more about minority ethnic children’s care careers, and in particular the histories of children with adoption recommendations. Analysis was done of the case files of a sample of 120 minority ethnic children from 3 local authorities who had received an adoption recommendation. The findings showed no evidence that children were being removed unfairly or in a discriminatory way. However, there were significant differences by ethnic group in the characteristics of children and their mothers, in reasons for entry and in age at referral. The factors leading to the children becoming looked after included: family honour; severe maternal mental illness often combined with domestic violence; and parental drug or alcohol misuse. The article concludes that these differences need to be better understood, and interventions need to be targeted at improving the circumstances and stresses within families. Simply focusing on reducing the number of minority ethnic children in care will not in itself produce better outcomes for children.
Costs and outcomes of non-infant adoptions
- Authors:
- SELWYN Julie, et al
- Publisher:
- British Association for Adoption and Fostering
- Publication year:
- 2006
- Pagination:
- 305p., bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- London
Adoption is now at the heart of government policy to secure permanent, stable family lives for children who are no longer able to remain with their own birth families. Most children are placed with their new adoptive families after infancy and following very poor early parenting experiences, but surprisingly little is known about the long-term outcomes of these adoptions. What emotional impact do they have on both the adopted children and the adopters? What are the financial costs to social services of placing and supporting these children and their new families? This book reports the findings of a Department of Health-funded study of a complete sample of 130 older children, from one geographical area in England, for whom an “adoption in best interests” decision was made during a defined period in the 1990s. The study tracked the progress of all the children through the care system until 2002, with 80 children moving into permanent adoptive placements, 34 into long-term foster care and 16 having unstable experiences of being “looked after”. It examined the children’s early lives, the decisions made about them before the best interests recommendation, the costs involved, and any delays in the process. Adopters and foster carers give their accounts of caring for the children, the financial and emotional costs to themselves and their families, and the support they received. This study provides a unique opportunity to compare the outcomes for both the adopted and the fostered children. It allows an accurate assessment of the success of adoption as a placement choice to be made, and makes recommendations for policy and practice based on this complete sample. It will be of interest to all those involved in making placement decisions for “looked after” children.
Understanding pathways to permanence: adoption and minority ethnic children
- Author:
- SELWYN Julie
- Journal article citation:
- Childright, 223, February 2006, pp.14-17.
- Publisher:
- Children's Legal Centre
Looks at adoption pathways for black and minority ethnic (BME) children. Discusses the over-representation of BME children in the care system, and BME children 'in need' generally. Outlines recent research on the permanent placement of BME children, looking at the number of children adopted from care, and the number of children waiting for new adoptive families. Discusses some of the reasons for delays in placement of BME children with adoptive families, the problems of finding and recruiting adoptive parents for BME children, differential social work activity, and matching ethnicity and cultural identity in adoptive placements.
Why are we waiting?: the demography of adoption for children of black, Asian and black mixed parentage in England
- Authors:
- FRAZER Lesley, SELWYN Julie
- Journal article citation:
- Child and Family Social Work, 10(2), May 2005, pp.135-147.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The known shortage of adopters for children of black, Asian and black mixed parentage poses many dilemmas for practitioners, not least because of the potentially damaging consequences of delay while placements are sought. Drawing on a study of agency policy and practice in the recruitment of a larger, more diverse pool of adopters, this paper explores the demography of adoption for children of black, Asian and black mixed parentage. The paper suggests that the adoption prospects of children of some ethnic and religious groups may be affected by the young age structures of their populations. The age profiles and presenting needs of looked after children also vary between ethnic groups, putting some groups at a relatively greater disadvantage in terms of their adoption chances. At the same time, the paper considers the environmental and family factors that may affect the recruitment of a more diverse pool of adopters, and highlights the difficulties of achieving a balance between adopters' expectations and the needs of waiting children. It concludes that more culturally sensitive and proactive recruitment strategies are needed, together with targeted, creative approaches to meet the placement needs of those children of black, Asian or mixed parentage who currently wait longest.
The wellbeing of children in care and care leavers: learning from the Bright Spots Programme
- Authors:
- BAKER Claire, BRIHEIM-CROOKALL Linda, SELWYN Julie
- Publisher:
- Research in Practice
- Publication year:
- 2022
- Pagination:
- 36
- Place of publication:
- Darlington
This briefing provides an overview of the key messages from the Bright Spots Programme. The Bright Spots Programme has been working with children in care since 2013, and care leavers from 2017, to understand what needs to be in place to enable these children and young people to flourish. To date, the Bright Spots surveys have been completed by over 17,500 children and young people from 59 local authorities in England and Wales. In telling the story of Bright Spots the briefing addresses two fundamental questions: 1) What makes life good for children in care and care leavers? 2) How can we make life better for children in care and care leavers? The briefing comprises three main sections: overview of the Bright Spots Programme; key findings from Bright Spots; practice examples to improve children in care and care leavers' wellbeing. The briefing provides key messages from the Bright Spots programme, practice examples and reflective questions to help you think about how you might use the evidence and be involved in the programme in the future. Quotes from children and care leavers who took part in the Bright Spots surveys are included throughout the report. Each quote indicates the age group of the child or young person who responded. The findings reveal that many children in care were positive about their lives; 82 per cent felt their lives were getting better. There was a steep decline in wellbeing for care leavers. Around 30% of care leavers experienced low wellbeing, a proportion twice as high as young people in care. Compared with young people (11-18yrs) in care, a higher percentage of care leavers also felt unhappy, unsafe and unsettled where they lived. (Edited publisher abstract)
“I wish someone would explain why I am in care”: the impact of children and young people's lack of understanding of why they are in out‐of‐home care on their well‐being and felt security
- Authors:
- STAINES Jo, SELWYN Julie
- Journal article citation:
- Child and Family Social Work, 25(S1), 2020, pp.97-106.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Having a good understanding of one's origins and history is known to be significant in identity development. Drawing on a large‐scale online survey of looked after children's subjective well‐being, this paper demonstrates that a significant number of children and young people (age 4–18 years) did not fully understand the reasons for their entry to care. The paper explores the effect of this lack of knowledge on children's well‐being and on their feelings of being settled in their current placement. The study reiterates the need for professionals to be honest and open with children in out‐of‐home care and the need to specifically address, perhaps repeatedly, why a child is not living with their birth family. (Publisher abstract)