The Impact of Fostering

An interesting new publication from the University of Oxford examines an area that perhaps rarely receives attention. The Impact of Fostering on Foster Carers’ Children argues that when foster children enter a new family, it is in fact the whole of the host family that fosters, and so the existing children of the foster parents also have an important role to play in this process. The research was carried out by The Rees Centre for Research in Fostering and Education, which has also released several other freely available reports.

For further reading on fostering, this previous post contains a number of suggestions (most of the links still work!), or you may want to look at the NFER's 2012 report: The Experiences of Fostering and Adoption Processes: the Views of Children and Young People.

The Care Inquiry

The final report of the Care Inquiry has just been published; this is the result of a collaboration between eight different charities. The inquiry was launched last August, and set out to collect and explore evidence on what works for children who cannot live with their birth families and so require a stable and permanent home. You can read more about the project at this page, which also includes links to the full text of the final report and various other supporting documents.

Children and Families Bill

Today sees the publication of the long-awaited Children and Families Bill. Like most legislation it's a long, complex document, but the main areas it covers include adoption, family justice, special educational needs and childminders.

You can read the full text of the Bill by clicking here. An overview of some of the proposed changes are included in this Community Care article.

Fostering & Adoption Processes

The NFER have just published The Experiences of Fostering and Adoption Processes. This is a literature review which examines the views and experiences of children and young people who have been involved in these processes over the last decade, and also seeks to identify any gaps in the existing evidence.

Adoption has been a hot topic lately, with the DfE publishing An Action Plan for Adoption, which is intended to reduce delays in current processes. The subject was also tackled in a recent Ofsted report entitled Right on Time: Exploring Delays in Adoption.

Other links that may interest readers include the TACT website - TACT are a charity specialising in fostering and adoption issues - and their 2011 research report Aspirations Three Years On: The Views of Young People who are Fostered and their Carers.

National Adoption Week

Today is the first day of National Adoption Week, which has been an annual event since 1997 and aims to raise the profile of adoption services throughout the UK. The Week is co-ordinated by the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF), who provide guidance and support for all aspects of adoption, and their website is a fantastic source of information, containing news, free reports, statistics and more.

Site users with an interest in adoption may also want to look at the BAAF blog or their links page for details of other organisations that work in this area. The Adoption Research Initiative and TACT websites are also well worth a visit.

If you know of another particularly useful adoption resource, feel free to share it by leaving a comment below.

Foster Care Fortnight

Monday saw the beginning of Foster Care Fortnight, which seems as good an excuse as any to post some resources about fostering, as it's a topic which I sometimes get enquiries about. Foster Care Fortnight is an annual event held by UK charity the Fostering Network, which aims to raise the profile of fostering and attract new carers. It is particularly timely this year, after the recent launch of the Foster Carers' Charter.

The Fostering Network website has an area called the Resource Centre, which is as good a place as any to start researching the subject. This contains details of a large number of reports, podcasts, newsletters, statistics and other publications, many of which are free to download. The site also has a fairly comprehensive Useful Links page, to point you towards other useful organisations and relevant legislation.

Two other websites which you should visit are the British Association for Adoption & Fostering (BAAF) and The Adolescent and Children's Trust (TACT). Both of these charities provide detailed information on fostering and help to link children with prospective foster families. TACT's 2009 report Aspirations: the Views of Foster Children and their Carers is also an invaluable introduction to many of the issues surrounding fostering, and there has recently been a follow-up report entitled Aspirations Three Years On.

For further research about fostering, Ofsted has released several publications on the topic over the last few years. Being Fostered (2005), Children's Experience of Private Fostering (2008) and Care and Prejudice (2009) are all worth a look.

Finally, to bring us up to date, the Guardian has today published 3 articles in its Society supplement, to tie in with Foster Care Fortnight. Foster Care: 'The Best Job I've Ever Done' examines a shortage in the number of available foster families, Reaping the Rewards of Fostering relates the experiences of a carer who fosters teenage boys, and Foster Providers Need to Make Long-Term Plans Sooner highlights the importance of stable placements in providing successful outcomes for fostered children.

A Mixed Bag

Need some reading for the weekend? Once again the latest issue of the OnTheWeb newsletter (see this previous post for details of this excellent service) has come up trumps, so without further ado, here are some of the highlights from the latest issue...

• Aspirations: The Views of Foster Children and their Carers is a detailed examination of the fostering experience from the viewpoints of all people who are involved are in the process
• Practitioners’ Perspectives on Child Poverty is a new piece of research from the DCSF
• Students from all courses should be interested in the latest annual National Survey of Parents and Children, which has a strong emphasis on family life
• For a survey of how teacher's regard pupil behaviour, click here
• Promoting Take-Up of Formal Childcare Among Low-Income Families is a new report from the DCSF
• The Housing and Neighbourhood Impact of Britain’s Changing Ethnic Mix is a brief round-up of evidence from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation
• Enquiring Minds: Schools, Knowledge & Educational Change is the latest report in a series exploring notions of student-centred learning
• Social Exclusion and gang culture are two of the themes explored in Young People and Territoriality in British Cities
• Gathering Evidence of the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Young People: a Scoping Exercise has been produced by the University of Bedfordshire
• Health-led Parenting Interventions in Pregnancy and Early Years aims to contribute to the development of the Child Health Promotion Programme
• Use of Alcohol among Children and Young People is a very detailed look at an issue that has received much media coverage in recent years
• Learning mentors may be interested in a new report from Ofsted: Good Practice in Re-engaging Disaffected and Reluctant Students in Secondary Schools
• Ofsted are also responsible for Learning Outside the Classroom: How Far should you Go?
• Finally, the Trust for the Study of Adolesence (TSA) has issued a new report entitled The Needs and Experiences of Parents of Young People who have Mental Health Difficulties

Happy reading!

Fostering Families

A new publication from the Fostering Network examines an area of policy that is often disregarded; the report, entitled Fostering Families, looks at the issues that can be faced by the sons and daughters of parents who choose to offer foster care to other children. The report also contains some recommendations for government agencies and social workers which are aimed to ensure that the needs of such children are consistently met.

As well as this latest publication, the Fostering Network has released various other useful documents, some of which (though not all) are available for free on their website. For an A-Z list of these publications together with links to the full text where available, click here.

Cared For Children

The Research in Practice website (see this previous post for details) has just published a new research briefing on the topic of children who are cared for by members of their extended family or social network. The paper concludes that children who are brought up in this manner do at least as well as those in 'traditional' foster care. You can read the full paper by clicking here.