Volume 48 (Issue 3-4, October-December 2024) is now available!
The final instalment of Adoption & Fostering Volume 48 is a bumper issue, containing eight research articles. Wellbeing, adolescence and the role of the government are key themes in this edition.
Dr Dennis Golm’s editorial reflects on the stigma and discrimination faced by young people in care and asks whether making care experience a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 would go towards addressing the day-to-day challenges faced by those who are or have been looked after. Dennis was motivated to write this editorial because of the recommendations of Josh MacAlister in the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, the recent general election in the UK and the experiences of stigma reported in the journal.
In this issue, a study by Helen Young and her colleagues highlights the barriers looked after adolescents encounter when accessing mental health support – the first of four articles on this age group. Care leavers were interviewed and asked to provide photographs; they described feeling ‘doomed’, ‘unfixable’ and ‘misunderstood’.
Tom Matthews and Siobhan Hugh-Jones also conducted interviews using photographs to find out what is important to adolescents in care. They found that connectedness to a ‘social world’ within their foster placements allowed these young people to cope with their past, adapt to the present and move forward.
An article by Abigail Cohman and colleagues, sharing the results of an online survey, focuses specifically on looked after teenagers and school belonging, offering suggestions for how their wellbeing can be supported.
And Saul Hillman and colleagues present findings analysing data from the Adoption and Attachment Research Study. They looked at the attachment representations of adopted children in early childhood and again in early adolescence to determine the role of factors such as maltreatment, age and IQ.
Two articles provide international perspectives. Manya Oriel Kagan and Noga Shanee’s article offers an enlightening insight into the often ‘invisible’ fostering in Uganda, where at least 60% of the 1.5 million refugees are children. They provide important practical recommendations for improving the conditions for foster families. In Spain, Noemí García-Sanjuán and her colleagues have explored how adoptive and permanent foster families adjust to caring for children with intellectual disabilities, concluding that welfare systems must prepare and provide tailored processes for these families.
Back in the UK, a large-scale study by Gillian Schofield and her colleagues follows up on the introduction of official government regulations and guidance for long-term foster care in 2015. They conclude that the impact has been positive overall but that further government support is required to implement the regulations consistently across local authorities.
Finally, Sarah Lloyd presents two service evaluations by her co-authors, both trainee clinical psychologists, of groups run by the BUSS® LEAPlets programme. The groups aim to help fostered and adopted children and their families to develop their bodily regulation, building self-confidence and wellbeing.
You can read the issue on our website. Members, remember to sign in to your website account to access all articles and previous issues!
Vicky Walker, Production Editor, CoramBAAF.
CoramBAAF Conversations
Listen to Dr Dennis Golm (Journal Editor) and Vicky Walker (Production Editor) talking about the editorial and the articles featured in this issue, in our podcast series.