WHAT IS PERMANENCY?
The literature
I looked at seemed to define a long-term and successful placement
as one which lasts more than two years. The longer a placement lasts
then, the more likely it is to continue.
As a
general analogy we can view a foster placement as a ship setting out
from shore. At first the waters are calm. The situation, though full
of activity, seems trouble free. All hands are on deck. The child
is in regular contact with Social Worker.
After
a short time - in foster care terms, a period of six months to two
years - the home port seems far away. Workers have more urgent issues
to hand. Communication becomes more difficult and the supports slip
away. Meanwhile the sea gets rougher. New problems appear on the horizon.
As with
a ship, however, some children and carers sort out a way of being
together and meeting crises through humour, commitment and general
resilience. Sometimes the foster relationship works almost by chance
but we should be looking at strategies that will maximize the chance
of success and reduce the stresses and strains as the course of care
develops.
In particular,
many studies stress the importance of providing stability and continuity
for the child, rather than emphasising permanence. It is important,
then, to take these into account in long-term planning to ensure continuing
links, good communication, support and the continuing prospect of
reaching harbour safely.
EARLY
DAYS
Research
has always indicated that placements are more successful when they
are planned, with proper introductions. In this, the key is including
all parties – child, parents and foster carers. The more that
the child feels he has parental permission and there is some degree
of choice given to child and carers – then the more likely the
placement is to succeed. Child, carers and parents need as much information
as is possible and to be included in decision-making.
To achieve
this, Alan Rushton feels we need to be more imaginative in addressing
issues such as ways of including children in reviews and child protection
issues. There is some good material written and compiled by David
Shemmings and June Thoburn of the University of East Anglia. Rushton
stresses that the placement is as much influenced by the child as
the carer. To this end we could offer children Social Skills training,
Cognitive Therapy and other strategies for coping that will help them
get by.
In her
study of foster children in Northern Ireland in 1996, Collette McCauley
highlighted the feelings of sadness which most foster children feel
when first placed in foster care and the need for the child to be
able to express these feelings in a safe and confidential relationship.
There is strong evidence that the availability of independent advocacy
and mentoring services acts as a positive factor in promoting fostering
success.
It is important that carers receive regular contact from support workers
even though the worker may believe this is unnecessary when things
are going well.
Foster
carers are also more successful if they are treated as colleagues
and are given some autonomy in decision-making, particularly in day-to-day
areas of care but also in decisions that promote normality, fairness
and equal treatment of the young person with friends and other children.
Responsibilities should be clear, but there also needs to be some
element of flexibility built in to agreements.
The force
of positive thinking was also highlighted by McCauley in the University
of York study in 1998. McCauley states that what foster parents feel
four months into a placement is crucial. A placement is also more
likely to succeed if the Social Worker believes it is a good place
and if children really want to be there.
THE FOSTER
FAMILY
Collette
McCauley looked at several physical characteristics of successful
placements. The age difference in such placements between the foster
child and other children in the house tends to be at least two but
preferably three years. Families with other children tend to be more
successful but not if a birth child is under five years old. Successful
foster mothers tend to be over 40 years old. McCauley highlights an
American study and June Thoburn also reveals that same-race placements
have a lesser significant influence on success, though some of this
evidence is American based and included urban areas of greater cultural
complexity.
Several
studies point to the greater success of kinship carers, in spite of
the fact that they often receive little training, have traditionally
been less well remunerated and statistically come from poorer sections
of society. In the United Kingdom we place fewer children with family
members than either the United States or our European neighbours.
Several studies raised the possibility of the increased use of shared
care, using family members or residential facilities. Residential
schools are particularly successful in this area.
An interesting
variation on shared care was the experiment in Kansas, “Achievement
Place”. Here the carers were a couple, both qualified in Social
Care. They took in up to six troubled teenagers and were paid a salary.
The young people generally spent weekends with relatives or friends,
though not necessarily every weekend.
The couple
were helped in the home by a Social Work Assistant who also lived
in. He/she provided continuity when the couple had days off or holidays,
and would be then supported by a peripatetic worker. The carers/workers
were reviewed annually.
This
arrangement seems to be a half-way house between fostering and residential
care and in many respects fulfils the recommendation of Sir William
Utting. In his report “Children in The Public Care”. He
argued strongly against shift working in children’s homes. He
wrote, “Young people are unlikely to place much value on the
establishment they live in if all staff choose to live elsewhere”.
This would give the idea of fostering for teenagers more credence
but to ensure success, more support and flexibility may need to be
considered.
It is
important to remember also that foster care occurs in the context
of a family. Fostering has a real impact on all family members. Support
needs to be regular and built into a placement from the start. It
may include regular respite and planned shared care.
Whilst
status (being treated as a colleague), training and good support are
factors that work toward success, payment is a less predictable factor.
A lot of research seems to confuse professionalism with monetary reward
as if the two went hand in hand. Several researchers seem to feel
that payment detracts from altruism. At least the York study points
to the need for all modern families to have two incomes. Maluccio
1994 concluded that any measure which increases commitment increases
success. One could argue that financial reward would do this.
THE CHILD
It is
an accepted fact found in all research that the younger the child
on placement, the more successful it will be in traditional family
care. Several studies, notably “On the Move Again” 1999,
point to the vulnerable middle years, ages 8-13 years. Placement during
these years more often results in breakdown.
For placements
to be successful, children must want to be there (McCauley & York
study). In general foster children want to be treated as other children
in the family and their friends in school. They want someone to take
an interest in them and to encourage them. They also want to have
a say in their own lives. Even after two years, McCauley states, most
of the children she interviewed did not feel a part of the foster
family. They often feel a real sadness at not having parental permission
to live somewhere else.
Gillian
Schofield, Deputy Director of Research Child & Family Unit, University
of East Anglia, looked at forty adults aged 18-30 years who had spent
significant periods in foster care. All had had crises and significant
traumas in their lives prior to, and during, care. They often pointed
to “turning points” in their care histories and Schofield
also highlights the characteristic of “resilience”.
She comments
how children in foster care can acquire personal resources that equip
them to cope with the adult world, - self-esteem, social skills, academic
achievement and close relationships with a family who will support
them into the adult world.
The group
she interviewed she subdivided into seven sub-groups of success related
to their feelings about foster care (Appendix 1). I will also note
here again Alan Rushton’s thesis that many of the skills necessary
for self-preservation can be acquired by radical intervention through
either a mentor or the social worker.
Life
Story Work, though important, should not be the only area of work
done to support foster children. Indeed, he reports that some children
view this as “digging up the past”. Fahlberg also highlights
the notion that universal good principles should not be pursued in
a mechanistic way that ignores the needs of individual children in
dealing with loss and change.
When
children are first placed or changes in placements occur, a factor
that militates towards success is ensuring stability in other areas
of a child’s life – the opportunity to keep friends, the
same school, the same interests. This was particularly highlighted
in “On the Move Again” which concluded that equal weight
should be given to ensuring continuity in the same school for children
as to other factors. If children are happy in school this will also
promote success.
The need
for sustained positive community contact was also highlighted in the
Robbie Gilligan article “Issues in Foster Care.” He underscored
the notion that friendships, involvement in leisure pursuits and positive
connections in the community promote a sense of belonging and of mattering,
they give purpose, increase physical health and act as a passport
to other social networks
Contact
also promotes stability. Parental contact can be detrimental particularly
if it is with the abuser. Sibling contact and contact with extended
family members can be positive however. Contact should be person-specific,
and account should be taken of a child’s individual circumstances
and feelings and the individuals who have meaningful relationships
with him/her. Contact is also more successful if it is maintained
informally and if foster carers have an easy and accepting relationship
with the individual.
Slette
et al in a study on foster care in Norway highlights the principle,
“The children’s right to continuity and stability must
be the primary goal of all attempts at intervention.” Shortly
before his retirement as Chief Social Services Inspector, Lord Laming
also said categorically that no child should be moved except in the
interests of his/her welfare and certainly not for financial or administrative
reasons. There is the danger that, with its emphasis on budgets, the
whole ethos of managerialism can be set to work against this principle.
AND FINALLY
TO HIGHLIGHT
THE GOODMAN
PROJECT – (Manchester Adoption Society, Bury S.S.D, Salford
S.S.D) – a project which adopts a twin-track approach. Prospective
adopters work as foster carers alongside social workers. The plan
is to work with birth families to rehabilitate the child but should
this fail, the foster-carer adopts.
NEXT
STEPS – (Newcastle-on Tyne) - a project with troubled teenagers.
Workers use group-work, cognitive behaviour therapy, anger control
management and advice. The worker goes with the teenager wherever
he is placed and is long-term (up to 2 years)
BARNARDO’S
FAMILY PLACEMENT SCHEME – (Edinburgh) - very similar to the
Goodwin Project, using potential adopters as foster parents.
FACTORS
PROMOTING LONG-TERM SUCCESS IN PLACEMENT
1. Placement
with relatives/individuals known to the child
2. Placement
choice made by carer and child
3. Continuity
of school and other community supports
4. Intensive
social work support for carer particularly from supervising worker,
and regular support for child in first two years
5. Information
sharing, openness and honesty with all parties
6. Informal
and regular contact with siblings, grandparents and friends
7. Social
worker believing the placement is good
8. Parental
consent and acceptance
9. Positive
regard for carer by parent
10. Foster
carer’s willingness to work with parent
11. Older
more experienced carers
12. Presence
of other children in the family or foster children – but an
age gap of three years and no birth child under five years
13. Greater
autonomy for foster carers
14. Child’s
personality (resilience, socials skills, settled in school)
15. Training
for foster carers
16. Child
feels well treated and part of the family
17. Respite
care a part of the placement (shared care)
18. Child
has access to independent mentoring and advocacy
LESS
CERTAIN FACTORS
Higher
rates of pay
Same race placements
Parental contact
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. B.A.A.F.
Beek, Schofield and Sumner “Foster Carers’ Perspectives
on Permanence” 2002
2. B.A.A.F.
“Preparing for Permanence” 1999
3. Baker,
Gibbs, Sinclair and Wilson “Supporting Foster Placements”
1999 York University
4. Farmer,
Elaine “School for Policy Studies at Bristol University 5th.
Annual Conference” June 2001
5. Kelly
G. and Gilligan R. “Issues in Foster Care” 2000
6. Jackson,
S. Thomas, N. “On the move Again” Barnardo’s 1999
7. McAuley,
Collette “Children in Long Term Foster Care” 1996 Northern
Ireland
8. Schofield,
Gillian “Foster Care As a Family for Life for Looked After Children”
5th. Annual Conference Bristol June 2001
9. Rushton,
Alan “Preparation of Permanent foster Carers” 1991
10. Thoburn,
J. “Success & Failure in Permanent Family Placement”
2000 Avebury
11. Thoburn,
J. & Norford, L. “Permanent Family Placement for Children
of Minority Ethnic Groups” Jessica Kingsley
12. Utting,
William “Children in the Public Care” Department of Health
1991
