Part of the family: Planning for permanence in long-term family foster care

There are concerns for the stability and outcomes for children in care amongst policy makers in England and many other countries. The goal of permanence for children separated from their birth families and in the care of the state has dominated child care policy and practice in the UK, the USA and Canada since the 1980s, but the meanings of permanence in terms of stability, emotional security and family membership into adulthood are complex and the placements and legal status thought best able to achieve permanence are contested.This research was an investigation of planning for permanence in long-term foster family care in England, where it is accepted by policy makers that this is a legitimate permanence option. The aim was to consider the fit between the planning and reviewing systems designed to achieve permanence in foster care and the reality of planned permanent placements as experienced by foster children and foster carers.Results suggested that although committed relationships within the foster family were helping children to feel a sense of permanence and to become part of the family, planning and reviewing procedures required by corporate parenting were often not adapted to the special nature of these foster placements. It was concluded that although planning and reviewing systems need to be rigorous, they also need to be more child and family sensitive in permanent placements.     

Getting home on time: predicting timely permanence for young children

The timelines of the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) (P.L. 105-89) require increased attention to the timing of permanent placement, regardless of the type of placement outcome. This study examines the multivariate predictors of timely permanence for children served by Colorado's Expedited Permanency Planning (EPP) project. EPP has used an intensive concurrent planning model aimed at reaching permanency within 12 months of initial placement for children aged 6 and younger. The EPP requirement that children be living in the permanent home by 12 months postplacement is more stringent than the technical ASFA requirements. This article uses qualitative interviews with child welfare and court personnel to identify critical barriers to and supports for effective permanency planning.     

Health care policies for children in out-of-home care

Placement in out-of-home care is one intervention used to protect children from abuse and neglect. While children are in such care, it is the child welfare agency's responsibility to ensure that their health needs are met. The study reported here examined health care policies and services for children in 46 state child welfare agencies. Virtually all states had some sort of written policies regarding health care for children in out-of-home care. Half, however, reported having no information management system to record health care data, and only six of the 23 had computerized systems. Most states fell short of meeting the standards set by the Child Welfare League of America for the health care of children in out-of-home care.     

Predictors of short-term reunification in South Australian substitute care

This study examines the factors that contribute to short-term reunification for 235 children placed in South Australian substitute care from 1998 to 1999. Proportional hazard analyses showed that non-Aboriginal children and those placed because of parental incapacity were significantly more likely to go home, whereas neglected and Aboriginal children were significantly less likely to go home. A detailed profile analysis highlighted the specific case characteristics or changes thought to have contributed to reunification in each case.     

Stabilizing flows in the legal field: illusions of permanence,intellectual property rights and the transnationalization of law

In this article I examine some of the problems that ‘modern’ legal theory poses for a consideration of the extended reach of social actors and institutions in time and space. While jurisprudence has begun to engage with the concept of globalization, it has done so in a relatively limited manner. Thus legal theory's encounters with highly visible transnational practices have, for the most part, resulted not in challenging the prevailing formal legal paradigm, but in a renewed if slightly modified search for a general jurisprudence that ultimately takes little account of the manner in which the work of law is carried out transnationally. In the first part of this article I examine how legal theory's concern to maintain its own integrity places limitations on its ability to examine the permeability of social boundaries. In the latter part I draw on critical human geography, post–structuralism and actor–network theory (ANT), to examine the manner in which transnational actors have been able to mobilize law, and in particular intellectual property rights (IPRs), as a necessary strategy for both maintaining the meanings of bio–technologies through time and space, and enrolling farmers into particular social networks.     

Unmet legal and social advocacy needs of children with sickle cell disease: Implications for health care payer costs

Previous studies of advocacy needs faced by children and families have not differentiated needs that require attorney involvement (“legal advocacy needs”) from needs best addressed by social workers or lay advocates (“social advocacy needs”). Studies have also not examined the relationship between either type of need and health care costs. We developed a novel, replicable process to differentiate between legal advocacy needs and social advocacy needs. We then collected cross-sectional data from a sample of 52 children with sickle cell disease who were at least 1 year of age, a population with high advocacy needs and high health care costs. Mean annual health care costs to payers for children whose families had a least one legal advocacy need were $16,314, compared to $5552 for children in families with no legal advocacy needs (P = 0.007). After adjusting for covariates, the presence of a legal advocacy need was associated with $12,040 more in health care costs to payers (P = 0.02). Whether interventions to prevent and resolve legal advocacy needs can reduce health care costs by addressing the social determinants of health warrants future study.     

The legal consequences for children born of chemically dependent mothers

The justice system has witnessed the negative consequences of chemical abuse. Infants are especially vulnerable to harm as a result of maternal drug use. This article uses a legal perspective to examine the conflict between maternal and fetal rights and reviews selected decisions and laws designed to protect children from maternal drug use. It advocates a policy of state intervention in order to protect children from the damage which can accompany maternal chemical use.     

Outreach to birthfathers of children in out-of-home care

This article presents findings from a study of casework outreach to birthparents of children in out-of-home care. The study explored whether the birthfather was being ignored as a resource for discharge planning. It examined the outreach and interventions of caseworkers in three New York City out-of-home care agencies. Casework activity levels were found to be higher for birthmothers than for birthfathers, and a complex relationship among the variables of gender, outreach, and response was revealed. The nature and value of more specific outreach toward birthfathers of children in care and the risk of ignoring men in the birthfamily system are discussed.     

Mental health service utilization and time to care: A comparison of children in traditional foster care and children in kinship care

Existing research indicates that children who are involved with the child welfare system and placed in various forms of out-of-home care experience emotional and behavioral problems. It is also suggested that children placed in kinship care are less likely to receive mental health services than children placed in non-kinship foster homes. This study sought to compare children in non-kinship foster homes to children in kinship care to determine their receipt of mental health services and the time it took for children in kinship care to receive mental health services compared to children in non-kinship foster homes. Using a Cox regression, researchers determined that children in kinship care had a 14% lower likelihood of receipt of mental health services compared to their counterparts in non-kinship foster placements.     

Comparing developmental outcomes for children in care with those for other children in Canada

This study assessed the test–retest reliability and convergent validity of single items from the Assessment and Action Record (AAR), from Looking After Children (Ward, 1995). It also compared developmental outcomes of 43 children cared for by a Canadian child welfare agency and those of an approximate comparison group of 1,600 children from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (Statistics Canada, 1995). High and low reliability and validity were found for different AAR items. The children in care had worse outcomes than the comparison children on indicators of educational success and negative behaviour, but not on measures of identity, social and family relationships, or prosocial behaviour.     

Achieving quality in day care for young children

SUMMARY. In a service such as day care, different beliefs about appropriate child care and family patterns make quality a relative concept. However, service providers should work towards overall aims and specific goals established on values and beliefs about day care. It is argued that the day care service needs to tackle the definition of quality, for the job satisfaction of the service providers, for the well being of the children involved and for the satisfaction and peace of mind of the parents. The day care service needs to take heed of the customers of the service—the children and the parents—and to move from a position of apology and defence to a positive evaluation of what quality can mean The article expands a presentation by one of the authors (JL) to the Values and Quality in Day Care Seminar, organised by the National Children's Bureau Under Fives Unit on 16 February 1988     

Permanency mediation: a path to open adoption for children in out-of-home care

This research study examined the experiences of birthparents, permanent parents, and mediators in permanency mediation following a state child welfare agency's recommendation for termination of parental rights. Permanency mediation provides participants with the opportunity to collaborate in an agreement that entails a voluntary surrender of parental rights by the birthparents and the placement of children with permanent parents in open adoption or guardianship. Findings suggested that permanency mediation has the potential to be a successful practice. Participants, however, need additional support during and after mediation to help them understand open adoption and deal with the changes in family structures and boundaries, address their own feelings and concerns, and establish reliable means of communication with each other.     

Bibliotherapy for children in foster care and adoption

The bibliotherapeutic technique can help children adjust to the foster care and adoption experience. Appropriate children's books are described and the application and limitations of bibliotherapy are discussed.