A summary of this book is included in: Child protection: messages from research - ISBN 0113217811

Child Protection Practice: Private Risks and Public Remedies - Decision-Making (Studies in Child Protection)

Farmer, Elaine

Stationery Office Books (TSO)

This is one of the books in the Wiley/Department of Health series on residential care. Residential care is an increasingly important topic in social welfare. The series, based on research for the DOH, represents the most up-to-date and authoritative research in this area. This book examines the management of sexually abused and abusing children in foster and residential care. The authors gathered data from a review of 250 carefiles to compare the needs and vulnerability of sexually abused and abusing children with those of non-abused children in care. Drawing on information from their detailed follow-up study of 40 children, the authors explore the management of sexually abused and abusing children inside and outside their placements. They examine the risks these children pose to other residents and foster carers? own children, and the children?s vulnerability to further abuse and exploitation. The authors highlight three different groups of children who have distinctive needs for management and placement: prostitutes; sexualised adolescent girls; and young abusers. The book provides a rich source of essential messages for policy and practice aimed at minimising the risks to these children and others.

Sexually Abused and Abusing Children in Substitute Care

Politics & Social Sciences

Pollock, Sue

Social Sciences

wiley

Adolescents are the hardest group to foster and have high rates of placement breakdown. Elaine Farmer and her colleagues examine what helps to make their placements work. Key issues for this age group are explored, including peer relationships, sexual health and relationships, the impact of the adolescent on the foster family and balancing their need for safety and autonomy.
Based on government-commissioned research and part of the Supporting Parents initiative, this book addresses each stage of the care process, from placement selection to leaving foster care. The authors consider which kinds of professional support at which stages make a difference, the foster carer parenting skills that are crucial and how foster carers can draw on professional support to manage adolescents' behaviour, maintain their educational attainments and negotiate ongoing contact with their birth parents. They draw out recommendations for policy and practice in the areas of:
how strain on carers can be reduced
the role foster carers' own children play in placement success or breakdown
single foster carers
how to contain the young people who are hardest to foster
key training requirements for foster carers
managing contact
how foster carers and social workers respond to gender differences in teenagers.
A rich source of recommendations for social workers, policy makers and carers, this book will be invaluable to anyone involved in the fields of child welfare and child protection.

Fostering Adolescents (Supporting Parents)

Moyers, Sue

Lipscombe, Jo

Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Children are frequently cared for by relatives and friends when parents, for whatever reason, are unable to care for their children themselves. Yet there has been very little information about how well children do when placed with kin or how safe they are in these placements.
This book compares formal kinship care to traditional foster placements in order to ascertain which children are placed with kin, in what circumstances, how well such children progress, and how often these placements disrupt. The authors explore whether children placed with family and friends fare better or worse than other foster children, what services are provided and needed, and how kin care is experienced by carers, children and social workers.
This book will be essential reading for social workers, policy makers, students and all those working with looked-after children, and will enable local authorities to make informed decisions about where best to place children and the support needed by family and friend carers.

Kinship Care: Fostering Effective Family and Friends Placements (Quality Matters in Childrens Services)

Part of the Safeguarding Children Across Services series Parents who neglect children present considerable challenges to child welfare professionals, and are often resistant to change. There is little evidence available on what works. This book addresses an urgent need to ensure that social care interventions provide better long term outcomes for neglected children across services. Based on a substantial research study into social care provision for children, it provides a rare insight into the experiences of neglected children over a period of five years, examining the responsiveness of parents and children to social care support and their progress. Close-focus study of the decisions made on either side of services by the children, the parents, the caregivers and related social and healthcare professionals shows what works and what doesn't, in the long term. This important study highlights gaps in provision for neglected children after the initial referral stage, the risks and potential for professional interventions and how well the child protection system and the courts protect children. The study suggests ways that local authorities and other professionals can meet the complex needs of the children most likely to fall through the safety net, the factors related to good outcomes for them and how to improve safeguarding strategies within and beyond children's services. Providing a critical account of policy, systems and practice, this book is essential reading for anyone who needs the latest evidence about safeguarding children, including policymakers, social workers and professionals in health care and the family justice system.

Effective Working With Neglected Children and Their Families: Linking Interventions With Long-term Outcomes (Safeguarding Children Across Services)

Jessica Kingsley Pub