Food in Foster Families: Care,Communication and Conflict

This study explores the significance of food and mealtimes in relation to the transition into foster care and the therapeutic settling of the child in a new family. In doing so, we draw upon an in‐depth, qualitative case study of 10 experienced foster families in the UK focusing on what helped them to be successful. At the time of the study, there were 16 foster children, aged 9–16, living with the families. Data collection included semi‐structured qualitative interviews and audio‐diaries with all family members who wished to be involved as well as eco‐maps produced by the young people. Thematic analysis and data extracts are reproduced in the study to demonstrate that meals and food preferences can function to affirm identities, membership and boundaries of family life as well as provide a site of conflict and control.     

'The Tip of the Ice Berg': Children's Complaints and Advocacy in Wales--An Insider View from Complaints Officers

This paper is based on findings of a Welsh Assembly Governmentfunded review of children’s independent advocacy servicesin Wales with reference to their involvement in complaints madeby children, or by their parents or carers on their behalf,about local authority social services. It draws, primarily,upon qualitative interviews with local authority children’scomplaints officers, whose task is to receive complaints orconcerns, field these to appropriate social services staff,maintain oversight of their progression and keep complainantsinformed of developments. The paper describes the challengesthat complaints officers perceive children encounter in movingcomplaints forward, especially in a context where independentadvocacy services are involved and where these services areviewed with some suspicion by social services staff. It suggeststhat complaints officers play a pivotal part in managing thesometimes contested and complex interface between service providerand child and may do so from a position of limited authorityand influence. The role of complaints officers in engaging withcomplainants and their advocates, and with those colleaguesimplicated in complaints, has rarely been the topic of research.This paper provides accounts from these key staff that helpilluminate the tensions and difficulties that can enter thechildren’s complaints process.     

Lay and professional knowledge in social work: reflections from ethnographic research on child protection

This paper is concerned with the discursive interaction of lay and professional knowledge in the practice of social workers. The contention is that identifying discrete sources of knowledge—such as evidence-informed materials—may be less important for explaining how social workers guide their practice than recognising the effect of the discursive interaction of lay and professional knowledge within organisational culture. The example used for this discussion is child protection work, with a particular emphasis on how practice can be seen to be gendered. In the course of making this overall argument, the paper draws on academic debates about the nature of knowledge in professional work and discusses lay and professional knowledge as revealed through ethnographic research carried out in a social work team in the UK.     

Training foster carers in challenging behaviour: a case study in disappointment?

This paper sets out key features of a semi‐experimental investigation conducted between March 1999 and April 2001 into the impact of training foster carers in techniques to manage challenging behaviour. We identified a sample of children (n = 103) in foster care in four authorities in South Wales who were selected by a checklist as showing behaviours that could be defined as challenging. From this search procedure we identified their foster carers (n = 106) and created a training intervention group for 53 carers looking after 49 children and a non‐intervention comparison group of 53 carers looking after 54 children. Both groups of carers were interviewed using a range of measures before and after the delivery of the training in order to identify any changes they perceived in the conduct of children and changes they perceived in their own capacities as carers. The training was delivered in small groups and evaluative feedback was gathered from carers and from training officers in those agencies that participated in the study. The results suggested that training, as designed and delivered in this study, had limited impact on child conduct and carer capacity. The reasons for this are discussed in light of selected findings. We spend some time on describing our methods in order to expose our approach to the critical scrutiny of readers, whose views would be welcome as we make our future research plans in this field.     

Local authority family centre intervention: a statistical exploration of services as family support or family control

This paper sets out findings from a statistical exploration into services arising from child protection referrals which became open cases allocated to local authority child care social workers employed by a large local authority social services department in South Wales. The workers operate from six local authority family centres located in areas of high social need. They offer a range of family support services as well as carrying out child protection investigations and related activities. In analysing the data a probability ratio was created to identify which offered services were more likely to be taken up. An activity index for services offered and taken up was then constructed followed by an attempt to delineate families' likely orientation to a family support or 'protection and control' mode of intervention. This is achieved by creating a simple range of lower and upper bounds of perception by imputing service orientation from the position of three 'representative individuals': a 'very suspicious client', a 'neutral third party', and a 'very optimistic social worker'. These three positions allow manipulation of the questionnaire data to estimate the probable interpretation of services from provider and recipient standpoints. From these sources parameter estimates to explore key variables associated with worker views about the sufficiency of their service in relation to family support and/or more controlling forms of intervention are deployed. The study suggests that child protection cases receive a family centre service strongly orientated to support rather than a narrow policing activity. However, there remain some notable differences of perception between worker and 'representative individuals' that imply potential difficulties over the role of local authority family centres.     

Open access family centres and their users: positive results,some doubts and new departures

This article reports findings from a research study of two open access, multi-use, community-based family centres. Structured, qualitative interviews were conducted with 40 adult users and 40 local adult non-users of the two centres. Additionally, a profile of user characteristics was derived from a survey of users attending over a one-week period at both centres. The vast majority of users were women in their twenties, just over half of whom attended with their children. The benefits and limitations of the current functioning of open access centres are discussed, with a potential shift in emphasis along a social development model proposed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adults Rule? Children,Advocacy and Complaints to Social Services

This article sets out results from a Welsh Assembly government‐funded study of complaints involving children and their use of advocacy services commissioned by local authorities in Wales. As this is the first study of its kind in Wales there is no baseline against which to compare the findings, hence we discuss the data in the context of a wider UK research literature and in relation to two key themes. These are (a) the number of complaints to social services involving children and the main characteristics of these complaints, particularly the involvement of an advocacy service and (b) the views of children about making a complaint and their experience of independent advocacy. The article reveals the adult‐dominated nature of the children's complaints system and the limited involvement of advocacy in supporting children who make a complaint. The pressing need for a more child‐focused approach that gives authentic voice to children and their rights is the key conclusion drawn from the evidence gathered in this study.     

Assessment in a specialist referred family centre: outcomes for children

Relatively little is known about the outcomes of assessment as an information gathering mechanism as well as a therapeutic encounter in which service users explore and share their problems. Assessment in child welfare is now a highly topical issue given the new assessment framework recently introduced to England and which is currently a matter of consultation in Wales. In contributing to a long running debate over ‘what works’ in child protection assessment and intervention, a United Kingdom national voluntary child care agency commissioned the authors to undertake a three year outcomes study of a child and family assessment service provided by their specialist referred family centre in South Wales. The paper sets out selected findings that reveal an assessment regimen which encouraged partnership, enjoyed a comparatively high level of engagement particularly from male parents/carers, and was perceived by adult users as positive. It promoted clear decision making about the placement of children. Also, children involved in these assessments appeared to be exposed to low risk of re‐abuse compared to other relevant studies. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The intimate world of strangers – embodying the child in foster care

In this paper we look at fostering with particular regard to embodiment and the body, the boundaries around it and related aspects of intimacy in foster home settings. Based upon mixed qualitative methods comprising mainly audiotaped interviews and audiotaped diaries it was possible to document and analyse key activities, meanings and relationships that inform the private world of foster care. In doing so, the paper looks first at sociological notions of the body, we then deploy these conceptual tools in regard to a sequence of seemingly mundane yet profoundly important day-to-day encounters between the fostered child and the private lives of the foster family. The notion of fostering as the coming together of strangers in which all parties have to learn the often tacit and emergent rules of intimacy within a family setting is depicted here in regard to aspects of joint habitation and boundary regarding the body. Themes around physical care, nurturing, space and privacy, touch and cleanliness are explored in order to reveal more of the private encounters that construct the embodied world of fostering.