Early Permanence

Early Permanence is a child-centred practice that offers stability at a very early stage, preventing multiple moves and the associated trauma of separation from and loss of attachment figures, until a court has reached a decision about the final care plan for a child. The need for good quality care planning for children and twin… Read More

Race in Adoption, the Absent Presence.

In the 1960’s children from Black and Global Majority backgrounds were considered unadoptable and transracial adoption (TRA) was encouraged to prevent children from staying in long-term foster or residential care. Though as the testimonies of some transracially adopted adults were heard, the ability of TRA to provide children with positive racial/ethnic identities and a sense… Read More

Check your thinking: supporting anti-racist practice in children’s social care.

Presented by: Abyd Quinn-Aziz, Melissa Mendez and Sophie Hallett, Cardiff University. This session is aimed at practitioners, professionals and carers, and promotes resources that have been developed to support anti-racist-practice in children’s social care. In the webinar we explain the thinking behind the resources and how you can engage with these as an individual and… Read More

Why do prospective adoptive parents choose to adopt older children?

The assessment process  Prospective adoptive parents in the UK context are required to go through an assessment process. As part of the assessment process, prospective parents are required to undertake adoption preparation training where they learn about the potential needs of children who will be placed with them.   During this preparation and assessment process, prospective… Read More

Prof. Harriet Ward CBE

PROFESSOR HARRIET WARD CBE is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Rees Centre, Oxford University and Emeritus Professor of Child and Family Research at Loughborough University. She has over 30 years’ experience both as a research director and field researcher, as an adviser to policymakers and service providers, and as a social work practitioner. Harriet… Read More

Prof. Beth Neil

PROFESSOR BETH NEIL is a Professor of Social Work, Director of Research and Chair of the Research Ethics Committee for the School of Social Work at University of East Anglia. Before joining the Department as a Ph.D. student in 1996 (progressing to lecturer in 1999 and senior lecturer in 2007) she worked for several years… Read More

Prof. Jim Clifford OBE

Read Jim’s profile and find out more about the Community Interest Company that he founded, Sonnet Impact & Advisory, where he is Chief Executive.  The research report “A home for me? A comparative review of the value of different forms of permanence for children – Adoption, SGOs and Fostering” that Jim will be discussing in… Read More

How many is too many?

Person is guilty Person is innocent Person is judged guilty True positive False positive Person is judged not-guilty False negative True negative In the context of child and family social work, the more abused children we identify, the more families will undergo child protection investigations. The more children we keep from being seriously maltreated, the… Read More