Challenging behaviour in out‐of‐home care: use of attachment ideas in practice

Children in out‐of‐home care that demonstrate challenging behaviour are often thought of as ‘attachment disordered’. Our understanding of what this might mean for practice is not well developed. In this study, 92 South Australian stakeholders were interviewed about how they understood extremely challenging behaviour amongst school‐age children in out‐of‐home care. Participants consistently described behaviour as arising from attachment difficulties. Despite this, there were a variety of ways that a child's attachment needs were conceptualized, which appeared to be inconsistent with contemporary attachment theory. Thematic analysis yielded four implicit views about children's attachment: attachment as capacity that is limited, attachment as skill that children can learn and transfer to other relationships, attachment as unachievable for some children and an idealized view of attachment as a close and trusting relationship. These possible misconceptions about attachment and attachment needs and their relationship to the development of challenging behaviour are discussed in terms of attachment informed research and theory. The possible implications for placement practice and policy for children in out‐of‐home care are discussed.     

Managing behaviour in child residential group care: unique tensions

Residential group care workers are frequently required to support children with extremely challenging and aggressive behaviour. Our knowledge about the tensions that may exist for workers that manage difficult behaviour is theoretically and empirically underdeveloped. The aim of this exploratory study was to contribute to our understanding of the dynamics of behaviour management in the residential environment by identifying the worker‐reported tensions involved in the management of challenging and disruptive behaviour. Seventeen South Australian residential group care workers participated in semi‐structured interviews in which they were asked to describe their management of behaviour. These interviews were subjected to thematic analysis. The analysis revealed several dynamics that influence workers' management of challenging behaviour: the sense of parenting at a distance, the pressure for consistency, the desire for balance between control and connection, the desire for normality and the inconsistent nature of relationships. These findings contribute to our knowledge about the interpersonal context in which behaviour is addressed in the residential group home and enhance our understanding of the unique tensions that workers' experience in managing behaviour in the residential environment. The findings have implications for the development of staff training and the support of residential care workers managing challenging behaviour.     

Putting the child at the centre of inter‐professional cooperation in out‐of‐home care

A large part of most children's childhood is about taking part in educational and leisure‐time activities together with other children across various contexts. However, children in out‐of‐home care do not always have easy access to these possibilities for participation. In general, parents coordinate their children's everyday lives, but in the case of children in out‐of‐home care, the responsibility of care is distributed between several professionals and institutions. Research often recommends that inter‐professional cooperation should put the child at the centre and be more child focused. But what does that mean? The paper investigates theoretical understandings of ‘child centredness’ in inter‐professional cooperation. It also includes an empirical example taken from a research project that followed four children in their everyday lives in two residential homes in Denmark. The research explored how professionals work together across contexts in order to support children to take part in school and leisure‐time activities. The overall reasoning leads to the point that for children in out‐of‐home care, the possibility of exercising personal agency in their everyday life constitutes a difficult but vital issue. How children in out‐of‐home care learn how to conduct their everyday lives, is closely related to the ways professionals cooperate across contexts. It points to the need for close inter‐professional cooperation in order to encourage and support children's initiatives and engagements in activities in communities with other children.     

Commitment of Private and Public Agency Workers to Child Welfare: How Long Do They Plan to Stay?

ABSTRACT

Method: Child welfare professionals completing training to work in foster care were asked about reasons for taking their child welfare position, commitment to their agencies, and commitment to child welfare. Analyses compared responses from new public agency foster care workers (N = 100), public agency workers making lateral transfers to foster care (N = 64), and new private foster care workers (N = 105).

Results: Private agency foster care workers were less committed to their agencies and to child welfare and more likely to have taken the position because it was the only one available.

Conclusions: The practice by public child welfare of outsourcing foster care services to private agencies needs to be evaluated. This practice may not benefit children in care and may create organizational problems for agencies.     

Resettlement challenges faced by refugee claimant families in Montreal: lack of access to child care

Adult refugee claimants experience several well‐documented post‐migratory challenges. Little is known about the resettlement process for refugee claimant families with children. This study reports on 75 open‐ended, in‐depth interviews with refugee claimant families in Montreal about their resettlement challenges and their proposed solutions to them. These interviews were conducted with 33 dyads and triads of children and parents attending a paediatric hospital. Experiences accessing formal and informal child care in Montreal were addressed. Subsequently, a comparative policy analysis was conducted on residency eligibility criteria for child care subsidization. Twenty‐eight out of 39 parents (73%) report a lack of informal or formal child care and 15 out of 33 families (39%) propose improving access to formal child care services. They describe a lack of informal child care as a result of reduced social networks, and affordability as a barrier to formal child care services. Refugee claimants are not eligible for subsidized child care in Quebec. A comparative policy analysis within Canada and comparable countries reveals that this situation is not unique to Quebec. However, most provinces and European countries offer child care subsidies to refugee claimants. Refugee claimants should qualify for child care subsidies. Social workers and community organizations should consider their clients' child care needs in designing programmes and services.     

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.     

Intergenerational pathways leading to foster care placement of foster care alumni's children

This study examined a path model that postulated intergenerational relationships between biological parent psychosocial functioning and foster care alumni mental health, economic status and social support; and from these to the likelihood of children of foster care alumni being placed in foster care. The sample included 742 adults who spent time in foster care as children with a private foster care agency and who reported having at least one biological child. A full pathway was found between poorer father's functioning to greater alumni depression, which was in turn associated with negative social support, and then a greater likelihood of child out‐of‐home placement. Other parent to alumni paths were that poorer father functioning was associated with alumni anxiety and post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and poorer mother's mental health was associated with PTSD; however, anxiety and PTSD were not implicated as precursors of foster care placement of the child. Findings support the need for increased practice and policy support to address the mental health needs of parents of children in or at risk of foster care, as well as the children themselves, as family history may have a lasting influence on quality of life, even when children are raised apart from biological parents.     

We care about care: advice by children in care for children in care,foster parents and child welfare workers about the transition into foster care

Twenty children in foster care, ages 8 to 15 years, provided advice to children in care, foster parents and child welfare workers about ways to assist service delivery during the transition into foster care. The children discussed the importance of tending to experiences such as foster home expectations, the importance of time and information, the new foster/parent–child relationship, coping with stress, the ability to be engaged in decision‐making, the benefits of foster care and the need to build a trusting and personal relationship between children in care and their caregivers. The importance of listening to children's experiences of the transition into foster care and incorporating their advice into future research, policy and practice will be discussed.     

Finding a routine that works: A mixed methods study of foster parents

Although it is well established that daily routines are important for family well‐being, very little research has been done on how foster parents establish and integrate new foster children into family routines. We used a mixed‐methods, cross‐sectional design, focused on qualitative results to explore how foster parents utilize routines. Twenty‐three foster parents were recruited from a private child welfare agency in a large city in the United States. Surveys were administered to obtain demographic information, overall home atmosphere, and the importance and prevalence of different routines, including mealtimes and sleep schedules. Nine foster parents received a semistructured interview with open‐ended questions. Foster parents reported that routines such as bedtimes, mealtimes, chores, and homework were essential to family well‐being. Because both parents and children had to adjust to living together in an intimate family environment, it was important to establish routines quickly. Foster parents modified routines depending on their child's needs. Along with typical family routines, foster parents reported additional tasks, such as visits with biological parents, meetings with caseworkers, and trainings that affected their family schedule. Results imply that training foster care workers and foster parents about routines can engender stability and emotional belonging for children.     

Rhetoric vs. reality in social work supervision: the experiences of a group of child care social workers in England

Whilst the contribution of good supervision to high‐quality social work practice is widely recognized, research exploring practitioners' experiences of supervision is surprisingly limited. Set within the context of the supervision framework for employers of social workers in England, this small‐scale survey, using an extended questionnaire, examined the experiences of supervision of a group of child care social workers. The aim was to find out what aspects of supervision worked well and where there was room for improvement. The findings suggest that whilst the majority of employers had appropriate supervision policies in place, day‐to‐day practice varied enormously, frequently falling well short of national standards, with the quality of supervision often depending more on the characteristics of the supervisor and the agency context than the needs of the worker. Supervision sessions typically focused predominantly on case management, with much less attention paid to the worker and opportunities for them to reflect on their practice. Only a quarter of the social workers in this survey could be considered to be satisfied with their current supervision, with a much higher proportion clearly dissatisfied.     

From communication to co‐operation: Reconceptualizing social workers' engagement with children

Communicating and engaging with children is a foundational component of child care social work practice, but all too frequently, in the wake of serious incidents, it is the focus of criticism. Drawing on findings from a large‐scale ESRC‐funded research project conducted in the four U.K. nations, this paper explores, through a psychosocial analytic lens, how social workers anticipate, enact and reflect on their encounters with both children and their families. Close analysis of what social workers said about their practice alongside what they were observed to do in practice revealed perceptions, patterns and processes of communication that, first, minimize emotions and the complexity of the professional task and second, overly privilege verbal interaction. Drawing on Sennett's (2012) ideas this paper offers a reconceptualisation of this professional task, from a communicative to a co‐operative one. It affords and creates a space in which social workers can develop more attuned communicative practices that include rituals, gestures and the minimal use of force. The theoretical insights and evidence‐informed practice recommendations arising from this research have conceptual significance for the social work discipline and practical significance for the child care social work profession, across national and international contexts.     

Dialogic literary gatherings and out‐of‐home child care: Creation of new meanings through classic literature

Research on out‐of‐home child care has revealed that foster care programmes focused on educational attainment and reading have the potential to improve the academic outcomes of children in care. However, no studies have examined which elements of these programmes positively benefit children's emotional well‐being. This article presents evidence of the positive effects of implementing a successful educational action, dialogic literary gatherings, in a children's residential care institution. A qualitative study using a communicative‐oriented methodology was conducted and involved five participant observations and eight daily life stories with children in out‐of‐home care in Catalonia (Spain). The children's reflections demonstrated that reading classic books, such as Dickens' Oliver Twist, deeply influenced their feelings and self‐conceptions and created new and exciting meaning in their lives.     

What social workers talk about when they talk about child care proceedings in the District Court in Ireland

Court proceedings are a fundamental and increasingly time‐consuming aspect of social work practice. However, to date, there is a relatively modest body of literature considering the experiences of social workers in instituting child care proceedings and giving evidence in court. This paper draws on data gathered as part of an in‐depth qualitative study of professional experiences of District Court child care proceedings in Ireland and presents findings regarding the experiences of social workers in bringing court applications for child protection orders. It seeks to answer 2 key questions: First, how do child protection and welfare social workers experience the adversarial nature of child care proceedings in the District Court? Second, what are the views of child protection and welfare social workers on the strengths and weaknesses of child care proceedings as a decision‐making model for children and young people? The main findings are that social workers expressed significant reservations about the predominantly adversarial model that currently operates in Irish child care proceedings and about the level of respect that social workers are afforded within the operation of the system.     

Suicidal behaviour in transition‐aged youth with out‐of‐home care experience: Reviewing risk,assessment, and intervention

The rates of suicidal behaviours in youth with out‐of‐home care experience, particularly those who are on the verge of emancipation, appear to be alarmingly high. The purpose of the current study is to highlight the rates of suicidal ideation and behaviour in these youth, illuminating the empirical risk factors that may increase their vulnerability. We offer a review of screening measures and suicide interventions that may hold promise for administrators, practitioners, and researchers who wish to provide comprehensive assessment for transition‐aged youth with out‐of‐home care experiences and effectively treat those who may be at the highest risk.     

Experiences of Young Indian Girls Transiting out of Residential Care Homes

Leaving the residential care home is one of the most significant occurrence in the life of every care‐leaver. It encompasses vast changes which has a long term impact on the care‐leavers future. This study captures the lived experiences of twenty‐four young Indian girls who have left care in the past four years. It addresses their journey of moving out of care at two levels — their preparation to leave care and their present experience. The primary focus of the study is to explore the interpretation and meanings attributed by these girls to the phenomena of transition out of care; identifying the uniqueness and commonalities that emerges from their experiences. The results exposes a plethora of emotions and episodes the girls have encountered at each step of their path. It also emphasises on the role played by multiple environmental factors — support network (friends, peer group, family, social workers, etc.), residential care home, state and other social processes — operating at different systemic levels, highlighting the interface between the ‘self’ and the ‘environment’, based on the Ecological Framework.     

Care leaver needs and accessibility: Findings from the first large‐scale project in Switzerland

Leaving out‐of‐home care is a challenging situation not only for young people leaving care but also for the child welfare system. However, systematic and multiorganizational transitional programmes are often lacking. This study investigated Switzerland's first large‐scale care leaver programme and analysed associations between care leavers' needs and contactability in a sample of 459 care leavers. A first track compared the characteristics of successfully contacted care leavers and of not contactable care leavers (‘dropouts’). The second track analysed the association between need for support and self‐rated or proxy‐rated quality of life in the subsample of 235 successfully contacted care leavers. Odds for indicators of lower educational attainment were substantially increased for dropouts. Additionally, self‐reported need for support was significantly associated with lower self‐ratings of quality of life in seven areas. Care leavers who accepted the programme's offer of coaching rated their quality of life lower than participants who reported no need for support and participants who reported a need for support but turned down coaching. For successfully contacted care leavers, the programme gave access to coaching sessions to the young people the most in need. However, dropouts appeared more vulnerable and might therefore benefit even more from aftercare support.     

Child Well‐Being Scales (CWBS) in the assessment of families and children in home‐care intervention: an empirical study

This paper reports research carried out in Italy designed to investigate the usability of Child Well‐Being Scale (CWBS) for the outcome evaluation of home‐care interventions for vulnerable families and children in need. Using a pre‐ and post‐test design, the study traces the changes in 18 vulnerable families and 23 children in need included in a programme of home‐care intervention over a period of 11 months. All the families and children were assessed twice: at intake and at the end of the intervention (after 6 months). Furthermore, 10 families and 11 children had a longer intervention and were assessed three times. Moreover, two focus groups involving 13 home‐care workers and 11 face‐to‐face interviews were used to collect practitioners' points of views on CWBS. The results generally support the idea that families' and children's situation improved over time, as shown by an improvement in almost all of the considered dimensions after 6 months and after 11 months. Specifically, the families improved more on household adequacy in the long term while children on the child performance dimension improved in the short term. Practitioners reported that CWBS was an aid to multi‐professional decision‐making, as the systematic evaluation of the subscales was a practical base upon which to activate shared decision‐making during the casework.     

Breakdown of teenage placements in Swedish foster and residential care

This article deals with the problem of breakdown in different types of out‐of‐home care (foster care/residential care) for Swedish teenagers. How often are such placements prematurely terminated against the wishes and intentions of child welfare authorities? Which factors appear to increase or decrease the risk of placement breakdown? The sample consists of a national cohort of 776 youths who started 922 placements during 1991. Every placement was followed in municipal case files for a maximum period of five years. Between 30 and 37% of all placements were prematurely terminated, the exact figure depending on whether a narrow or wide definition of breakdown was applied. The lowest rates of breakdown were found in kinship care and secure units, the highest in non‐kinship foster homes. Teenagers who display antisocial behaviour and/or have mental health problems constitute a high‐risk category for most types of out‐of‐home care, but especially in non‐kinship foster homes. Risk factors in relation to breakdown were analysed in the four main forms of Swedish out‐of‐home care separately (foster homes, privately/publicly run residential care and secure units). The analysis pointed out that risk factors are not the same in all types of care, but antisocial behaviour at time of placement increased the risk in most forms of care. Prior research indicates that placement breakdown is a major problem of child welfare in other countries, and this study found that Sweden is no exception.     

“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

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.