Browse the latest publications from CoramBAAF below or search the bookshop by subject and theme.
Recently published
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National Minimum Standards for Fostering: Implications for kinship foster care in England
This Practice Note considers the National Minimum Standards (NMS) within the context of kinship foster care and how this differs from mainstream foster care. It provides practitioners and panel members with reflections about the interpretation of NMS for kinship foster carers, alongside practice points to ensure that they are supported to meet the NMS within the caring relationship they have for a specific child/ren.
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Recruiting and retaining foster carers
Foster carer recruitment and retention are huge challenges that have attracted much research and reporting, without leading to widespread positive change. But some key best practice has been learned. What forms of recruitment have proved most useful, and what advertising encourages applications? How have some agencies successfully reached a range of diverse applicants? What do carers value most in a fostering service, making them more likely to stay – and what factors may push them to leave?
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Undertaking a Kinship Care Assessment: A guide to collecting and analysing information for Form K (England)
'Undertaking a kinship assessment' is designed to help social workers to manage and complete a comprehensive and evidence-based assessment of kinship carers/connected people/family and friends who wish to foster or be special guardians to a known child or children.
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Matching children from England with adopters approved in Scotland
This Practice Note offers guidance on key aspects of children moving cross-border from England to Scotland to be placed with adopters approved in Scotland, specifically addressing common queries received by AFKA Scotland and CoramBAAF’s Advice Line.
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New editions
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Adoption now
*NEW EDITION* This handy guide presents the law, regulations, standards and guidance relating to adoption today, covering all stages of the process and related information – in easily digested bite-sized chunks.
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The adopter's handbook
Thinking about, or in the process of, adopting a child? Read this book to prepare for the experience of adoption, find the right resources to help you and feel more in control through the ups and downs along the way.
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The secure base model
Secure Base is a model of caregiving in fostering and adoption that is based on theories of attachment and resilience while also drawing on child placement research.
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Promoting attachment and resilience
This practical guide is designed to support foster carers and adopters in offering the best possible sensitive care for troubled children who have often experienced trauma and loss, using the Secure Base Model.
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Good Practice Guides
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Assessing children and families for adoption support in England
This practice guide aims to enhance the quality of post-order adoption support assessments, and thereby improve outcomes and well-being for adopted children and families. It will help social work practitioners to carry out assessments that are informed by the best available evidence and practice wisdom.
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Adoption by foster carers
Adoption by foster carers is an area of practice that has attracted controversy and divergent views prevail. This Good Practice Guide explores some of the issues behind the contradictory views. It challenges practitioners to reflect on the established “practice wisdom” and adopt a more open-minded and child-centred approach.
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Dealing with disruption
This Good Practice Guide considers various aspects of disruption in both fostering and adoption placements and is an important tool for those involved in making permanent placements for children.
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Access to information for adult care leavers
This Good Practice Guide aims to set out a protocol for dealing with Subject Access Requests (SARs) in order to improve services for adult care leavers and establish greater consistency and quality practice across organisations.
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Kinship care
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Kinship care and Special Guardianship: what it is and what it means
This short, colourful booklet is part of CoramBAAF’s series of publications for children and young people, which aim to explain concepts in adoption and fostering that they may find difficult to understand.
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Placing children with relatives overseas
This Practice Note emphasises the initial aspects to consider before seeking to assess a potential kinship carer who lives overseas. It is not intended to cover all aspects of the topic, but to help establish basic eligibility.
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Related by adoption
This useful handbook introduces grandparents-to-be and other relatives to information about adoption today. It offers some facts about the children who need to be adopted and discusses how the wider family can support and be involved in building a family through adoption.
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Unlawful placements in kinship care
In many situations, the reality of the placement becoming unlawful speaks more to the limitations of the regulations themselves, than whether the placement is the best place for a child to live. In an effort to help practitioners navigate these challenges, we have published the following a practice note.
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