COVID-19: Impact on children living in out-of-home care and their carers

Children enter out-of-home care (OOHC) having experienced significant childhood adversities and trauma. Little is known about the short-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on this vulnerable group. To gain some insights, we analysed the early impacts on the well-being and experiences of children in OOHC and their carers using the Pathways of Care Longitudinal Study data prior to and post the first lockdown restrictions. A total of 862 children, young people and their carers were interviewed either pre-COVID-19 restrictions (n = 567) (April 2019–March 2020) or post-COVID-19 restrictions (n = 295) (June–December 2020). While the two groups showed no significant differences in socio-emotional well-being, both the pre- and the post-COVID-19 restriction groups of children in OOHC had slight reductions in socio-emotional well-being. The interviews with the post-COVID-19 group showed that the pandemic restrictions affected children's well-being and behaviour, education, social and physical activities, as well as time spent with their birth family. Likewise, interviews with carers post-COVID-19 found a negative effect on carers' well-being, their ability to manage financially and their capacity to care and access services and support. The article contributes new evidence to inform OOHC policy and practice to support service systems facing unique challenges arising from a pandemic.     

Students in out-of-home care: Their experiences of Transforming Educational Achievement for Children at Risk,an Australian education programme

Children living in out-of-home care are at greater risk of poor educational outcomes compared to other children. To address their educational needs, several programs have been developed. Within a qualitative paradigm, this study explored the experiences of students about their involvement in TEACHaR (Transforming Educational Achievement for Children at Risk), a specialized education programme. Eight students (aged 13 to 18 years) from the programme participated in individual, semi-structured interviews. Responses were analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Participants indicated that the programme provided individualized and flexible academic support, reduced their shame and embarrassment and provided them with more than academic support. They highlighted the importance of the student–educator relationship, and the need for encouragement and motivation to pursue their educational goals. Finally, findings report on how COVID-19 impacts on student experiences of the programme. Recommendations for the development and improvement of education programs for students in out-of-home care conclude this paper.     

Who Takes Care of Education? Looked after children's perceptions of support for educational progress

This paper documents the views of a sample of 80 children and young people, aged 10–18 years, living in foster and residential care placements in England, regarding their educational experience whilst being looked after. The children were interviewed as part of an ongoing evaluation of the Taking Care of Education project, a development programme designed to facilitate improvements in the education of looked after children, co‐ordinated by the National Children's Bureau and funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation. Interviews with the sample asked children to assess their current educational progress and identify individuals who supported or hindered their education, as well as the availability of educational support in care placements. Teaching staff were frequently mentioned as providers of support, whilst social workers were often associated with hindering educational progress. Children and young people had access to a range of educational supports in care placements, and these were more widely available in residential settings than in foster care. Children offered a range of pertinent suggestions as to how the educational experience of those in the public care system might be improved.     

Traditional kinship foster care in northern Ghana: the experiences and views of children, carers and adults in Tamale

Surveys were employed to explore the experiences of children in care and their carers about traditional fostering. They also examined the perspectives of randomly selected adults in the community about the practice of traditional foster care in the Tamale area of northern Ghana. The 74 participants responded to closed- and open-ended interview questions about traditional foster care. Frequencies and thematic grouping of qualitative responses showed that the need to keep family ties alive was the key reason for placement of children with family and kin. Majority of the children expressed satisfaction with living in foster care, even though they had experienced physical and emotional abuse and intimidation. Although most carers were not formally employed and had little personal income, they were positive about having the care role, but faced challenges in providing for many children in a difficult economic situation. The report highlights the role of reciprocity, altruistic and socio-cultural factors in quality of care, and the potential for the traditional kinship foster care to provide suitable avenues of placement for children as recommended by the Ghana child rights law. It also identifies the need for education for carers around children's needs and Ghana's child rights law.     

Making a connection: school engagement of young people in care

Intervention to improve educational attainment for children in out‐of‐home care is increasingly being recognized as important for their well‐being and future opportunities. This paper reports on a mixed method study of the school engagement or connectedness of young people in care. The study comprised a survey of 202 young people in care in Queensland, Australia, and a matched comparison group of young people not in care, plus interviews with a subset of 65 young people in care who were surveyed. Both the school environment and the perceived levels of support influenced school engagement, with those who were assisted by carers and caseworkers more likely to be positively connected with school. These young people perceived education as a pathway to achieving work and life goals. The findings suggest that active and focused attention on young people's school engagement should be part of case planning and monitoring as it offers an additional strategy for improving their educational experience.     

Implementing the Power to Kids programme in home-based (foster) care: Identifying the SAFETY approach

Sexual abuse and dating violence are chronic problems for children and young people in out-of-home care. This study explored the impact of a prevention and response programme Power to Kids, which targets harmful sexual behaviour (HSB), child sexual exploitation (CSE) and dating violence (DV) for children and young people in home-based (foster) care. Twenty-eight case managers, 25 foster carers and 13 children and young people participated in a mixed methods study in Victoria, Australia informed by the research question: How does the Power to Kids programme impact the sexual health and safety of children and young people in home-based (foster) care? The data analysis revealed a SAFETY approach whereby the sexual health and safety knowledge of carers and case managers was enhanced, and carers were given permission to have Brave Conversations with children and young people, who could then apply the new knowledge to their lives. Case managers were upskilled in identifying indicators of sexual abuse and empowered to escalate stalled therapeutic and disruption practice when children and young people were identified as experiencing HSB, CSE or DV.     

Journeys of culturally connecting: Aboriginal young people's experiences of cultural connection in and beyond out-of-home care

With growing overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people in out-of-home care (OOHC), cultural disconnection is an omnipresent threat. Despite research and inquiries that have highlighted the risk of cultural disconnection for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children living in OOHC, limited research has explored Indigenous children and young people's experiences of cultural connection in the Australian context. Informed by Indigenous Standpoint Theory, this Aboriginal-led qualitative study sought to understand 10 OOHC-experienced Aboriginal young people's experiences of cultural connection over time, including after exit from OOHC, through retrospective interviews that employed a phenomenological lens. It was found that Aboriginal young people experienced cultural connection as a heterogenous process involving identity formation and the practice of culture, enacted as a choice over time. The complexity of Aboriginal young people's experiences of cultural connection over time gives rise to a new understanding of cultural connection as a journey of culturally connecting, wherein the risk of cultural disconnection is complicated by intergenerational child removals, dominant discourse about what constitutes Aboriginal culture, and removal from an Aboriginal cultural milieu.     

How do placements in kinship care compare with those in non‐kin foster care: placement patterns,progress and outcomes?

As the use of kinship care is set to rise in England, it is important that policy and practice developments are based on firm evidence about kin placement outcomes and how these compare with those in stranger foster care. The research reported in this paper was based on case file reviews of 270 children, half in kin placements and half in stranger foster care, and on interviews with a sub-sample of 32 kin carers, social workers, children and parents. Kin carers were found to be significantly more disadvantaged than stranger foster carers: more kin carers were lone carers, with health problems, living in overcrowded conditions and had financial difficulties. The children, in contrast, were remarkably similar in the two kinds of placement. The main differences between the children in the two settings are examined in the paper. The children's progress and outcomes in terms of placement quality and disruption were very similar in the two settings, but kin placements lasted longer, mainly because fewer were planned as interim placements. However, because kin carers persisted with very challenging children and yet received fewer services than stranger foster carers, they were more often under strain. The implications for policy and practice are examined.     

An investigation of the needs of grandparents who are raising grandchildren

Evidence suggests that children in out‐of‐home care function better when placed in kinship compared with foster care. Less is known about the functioning of children in the unique form of kinship care where grandparents are caring full‐time for their grandchildren in informal care arrangements. As grandparent carers are increasingly taking on this role, it is timely to investigate the functioning of the children in this form of care and the characteristics of the grandparents themselves. We compared the functioning of children in the two types of care. We also investigated carer characteristics, including the relationship between child functioning, social support and daily hassles on carer stress. One hundred fourteen cares and 180 children were assessed on a range of demographic and clinical measures. Children in grandparent care were displaying better behavioural and adaptive functioning than children living with foster carers. Grandparent carers reported higher levels of distress in the carer role. Predictors of carer stress included severity of child behaviour problems and daily hassles. Both group of carers and the children in their care would benefit from increased support from treatment services.     

Improving outcomes for children in out‐of‐home care: the role of therapeutic foster care

How best to support children and young people in foster care remains a challenge for child welfare. There has been little Australian research on the outcomes for children and young people placed in therapeutic foster care (TFC). This article aims to address this knowledge gap, presenting the evaluation of a state‐wide model of TFC known as the Circle Program operating in Victoria, Australia. Data sources for the study were case assessment analysis; surveys of foster carers, program workers and other stakeholders in the sector; and both focus groups and individual interviews with foster care workers. The evaluation found that the Circle Program lessened the number of unplanned exits of children from foster placements compared with generalist foster care. Another important finding was that the Circle Program positively influenced foster carers' decisions to stay in the carer role. Key components perceived as contributing to outcomes of the Circle Program included enhanced training of foster carers, intensive carer support, specialist therapeutic support to the child and carer, therapeutic service to family members and a network of services to provide support to the child.     

Looked after children's right to contact with birth parents: An Australian study

In Australia, there are more than 46 000 children in out-of-home care (OOHC). Most of these children have been in OOHC for more than 2 years. Similarly, there are more than 407 000 children in the United States and over 80 800 in England who are ‘looked after’ with approximately one third of these children being in OOHC for more than 2 years. This paper concerns ‘looked after’ children's rights to contact with their birth parents. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) requires child protection systems to recognize the rights of children to maintain contact with their families except where this is not in the child's ‘best interests’. In this paper, we report on a qualitative study conducted in Australia exploring legal and family support practitioners' perceptions of barriers to contact between children in OOHC and their birth parents. The thematic analysis identified four themes: These were as follows: a focus on systems driven responses; lack of cultural recognition and responsiveness; carers' disconnection from birth parents; and parents' exclusion. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding and recognizing children's right to contact with birth parents.     

Longing to belong: children in residential care and their experiences of peer relationships at school and in the children's home

Resilience literature has stressed the potential of both children's educational experiences and their friendships to act as protective factors against adversity. However, less is known about how children living with adversity navigate these ‘everyday’ aspects of social terrain and the particular challenges that they face. This paper explores the meaning and experience of peer relationships to one group of children living in residential care in Ireland. Drawing on a larger study of school and care, it explores data gathered from 16 children, aged 8 to 18, who were living in eight different children's homes on the east coast of Ireland. The findings suggest that the children were acutely aware of their ‘care’ status and developed a number of strategies to manage this identity in school. It appears that more often than not, children described being left to their own devises to manage friendships and peer relationships. Thus, despite being a crucial source of both stress and support, peer relationships did not appear to be regarded as an issue that adults should be involved with. This raises questions for practice about what children should be supported with and the way in which peer relationships are potentially overlooked by social work, residential and school staff.     

Supporting foster and kinship carers to promote the mental health of children

The majority of children and young people removed from the care of their parents by the state of Victoria, Australia, reside in foster or kinship care. These children have experienced a broad range of adverse conditions and are up to 4 times more likely to experience problems with mental health than their mainstream peers. This paper draws on the perspectives of foster and kinship carers, describing the disconnection between their role as mental health advocates and their interest in early intervention in a field which is dominated by crisis and the historic marginalisation of foster and kinship carers. Thirty‐one foster and kinship carers across greater metropolitan Melbourne, Australia, contributed to this study through interviews and focus groups. Participants demonstrated a practical understanding of mental health and an ability to identify a range of conditions that have an adverse impact on the mental health of children and young people in their care. The paper concludes that there is a lack of systemic support and even a range of barriers that affect the capacity of foster and kinship carers to promote the mental health and well‐being of the children and young people in their care.     

Foster carer perceptions of support and training in the context of high burden of care

The challenges of providing sensitive and structured care for children in foster care go well beyond normative experiences of parenting. The present paper describes a mixed‐methods study of foster carers' perceived need for support and training, referenced to estimates of their burden of care. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 17 foster carers in the Canterbury region of New Zealand. Carers' perceived need for support and training were identified through qualitative analysis of interviews using domain analysis method. Carers' burden of care was estimated from the Parenting Stress Index and from a measure of carers' encounters with children's emotional, behavioural and relationship difficulties that was designed for the present study (the Caregiver Behavioural Encounters Index). Foster carers reported substantive, unmet needs for support and training. Foster carers also reported high parenting stress and encounters with a wide range of children's mental health difficulties, including both uncommon and severe difficulties, which together represent an exceptional burden of care. Carers' highest priority need was for training and support on managing and responding to children's mental health difficulties, while their greatest existing support came from Caregiver Liaison Social Workers and other carers. The findings suggest a number of critical implications for practice.     

More than a piece of paper?: Personal education plans and ‘looked after’ children in England

This paper reports on research into personal education plans (PEPs) for ‘looked after’ children (children in care) in one large county local authority in England. PEPs were introduced by guidance from the Department for Education and Employment and Department of Health in 2000. The fieldwork for this research began two years after this guidance was published. The research findings show that although social services staff and teachers are critical of specific aspects of PEPs, they have helped to raise the profile of the educational needs of looked after children in the local authority studied. They have provided a forum for social work and education professionals to meet in the interests of particular children. Key problems relate to practical issues: ensuring social workers and teachers feel able to fulfil their expected roles in relation to the education of looked after children; making the system focus on meeting the needs of children as well as practitioners; difficulty in meeting specified timescales; more meaningful, constructive and sensitive involvement of children in the process of producing and reviewing PEPs. The broader issue, however, is about the ability to plan the education of looked after children. Additional barriers to planning were particularly apparent in residential care and specifically within secure accommodation.     

Grief,loss, and separation: Experiences of birth children of foster carers

Previous research identifies the increased exposure of birth children of foster carers to experiences of separation, grief, and loss due to the transient nature of foster care, but little is known about how birth children manage this loss. This paper reports findings from a qualitative study that examined the retrospective experiences of 15 adult birth children of foster carers (aged between 18 and 28 years) in Ireland. Findings suggest that birth children experience grief and loss when foster children leave their families. They report experiencing a range of emotional responses such as guilt, blame, and sadness. A reluctance to discuss their emotional responses with either their parents or foster care professionals was also reported. Instead, birth children developed strategies to manage the loss, such as distancing themselves from the foster care process. The study highlights the importance of social workers and foster carers explaining to birth children why foster children are leaving and, where possible, maintaining contact between birth children and foster children. Additionally, findings indicate the need for birth children to have safe nonjudgmental spaces to discuss their emotional reactions to loss.     

Nonfamilial kinship carers—Who are they and what support do they need to nurture children?

There is a growing body of literature about kinship care in the Western world; however, much of it focuses on grandparent care. A lesser known aspect of kinship care is the care of children by nonrelatives known to the child or their family. What little research exists about this group suggests that such placements are less stable than familial kinship care. This article reports a research study in Victoria, Australia, that explored nonfamilial kinship care through analysis of administrative data, interviews with young people and carers, and focus groups with kinship care support workers. It emerged that current administrative databases are not yet able to reliably identify the carer relationship, and thus the extent of such care arrangements cannot accurately be determined. Interviews and focus groups revealed that nonfamilial kinship care is diverse and qualitatively different from familial kinship care, bearing some similarities to foster care yet managed very differently. It is suggested that policymakers need to pay more attention to conceptualizing nonfamilial kinship care within kinship care policy frameworks and that greater attention is needed to the individual support needs of children in such placements and their carers.     

Factors supporting resilience during out-of-home care: Experiences of former child welfare clients in Finland

This study aimed to identify factors supporting young people's resilience during out-of-home care (OOHC) in Finland, despite challenges in their lives. In our qualitative study, we applied a social-ecological framework to understand the experiences and perspectives of young people on what helped them and the help they would have needed during OOHC. The findings indicate (1) individual characteristics and interests (positive attitude, understanding own acts and their consequences and meaningful activities), (2) relationships (good relationships with close ones, ability to meet and keep contact with close ones, good relationships with professionals and relationships between parents and professionals) and (3) institutions (place of OOHC, youth-centered practices, needs-based services and support for the family) all supported the resilience of young people in OOHC. Further, to receive support from a particular medium, such as professionals (relationship level), a young person must already have some self-understanding (individual level) of things. Essentially, youth resilience is supported through all these levels as a process.     

The school to work transition for young people in state care: perspectives from young people,carers and professionals

Workforce participation has many positive effects on quality of life. However, as young people in care have generally below‐average levels of educational participation and attainment, they may be ill‐equipped for the transition to further education and work. A mixed‐method study conducted in Australia about career development for young people in care investigated how this population develops ideas about future work: the social and cognitive variables that influence career decision‐making; practices for preparing young people in care for the transition to work or further education; and factors that support or impede the transition. Findings from the qualitative study are reported in this paper. Interview data were obtained from the multiple perspectives of young people in care, foster carers, caseworkers and school personnel. The overall picture was one of young people in care lacking the encouragement, resources and capacity to realistically plan for the job they want. Specific interventions are required to enhance career development and employment outcomes for this population.     

农民工随迁子女教育公平的财政实现机制探析

农民工随迁子女的教育公平是现代城市化进程中社会公平的重要内容与客观要求。教育公平主要通过教育资源的优化配置实现每个受教育者能享受到均等的教育,它包含教育机会公平、教育过程公平和教育质量公平。公共财政理论认为,教育属于准公共物品,这也是财政支持资源相对匮乏的农民工随迁子女的义务教育的理论依据。但由于其特殊性,应建立完善的政府间经费分担机制与财政监督机制。从财政支持农民工随迁子女教育公平的现状来看,教育机会公平显失、教育过程公平脆弱、教育质量公平任重道远。上述问题的根源在于农民工随迁子女财政教育经费投入不足、经费分担机制缺乏且不合理、缺乏专门的预算制度等。因此,针对上述问题,探寻完善财政实现机制,成为当前保障农民工随迁子女教育公平的必然选择。