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

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

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

Exploring Expertise: “Square peg in a round hole” – Kinship Care

Kinship Foster Carers (Connected Persons) often don’t choose to be foster carers, but the law requires them to be assessed, supervised and supported as a foster carer to ensure a child in care can remain in a regulated placement. For many reasons, it can be difficult to achieve approval of some kinship foster carers, and the ‘placement’ becomes unlawful or unregulated. Read More