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The search for safety, stability and belonging for children in out-of-home, across national boundaries June Thoburn University of East Anglia j.thoburn@uea.ac.uk Slide 2 Themes and issues Globalisation issues in child placement planning and practice The contribution of research in the search for stability across national boundaries Transferability of child welfare policies, initiatives/projects and methods Implications for understanding how well different countries do in achieving safety, stability and family membership Slide 3 Countries/States Australia (NSW, Queensland) Canada (Alberta, Ontario) Denmark France Germany Ireland Italy Japan New Zealand Norway Spain Sweden UK (4 nations) USA (Illinois, N Carolina, Washington) Slide 4 Cross-fertilisation Permanence policies from USA to UK Australia, Norway (but not France and Sweden) Family Group Conferences from New Zealand to UK, USA, Japan Kinship care from Australia, New Zealand and USA to UK LAC system from England to Canada etc Concurrent planning from Seattle to UK Treatment foster care from USA to UK, Sweden etc Slide 5 Rates in care per 10,000Slide 6 Inter-country differences related to: social systems, attitudes to the family beliefs about the efficacy of care/treatment the profiles of children entering care (especially age and ethnicity) legal systems eg extent of use of adoption as route out of care; which children are included in in care statistics- eg young offenders, disabled, may be recorded elsewhere; outcomes will vary between countries depending on these differences as will outcome measures used. Slide 7 Impact of deprivation: an illustration from the UK Slide 8 Indigenous over-representation Alberta Rate per 10,000 aboriginal children around 486 (111 for all children) Australia Rate per 10,000 aboriginal children around 264 (49 for all children) Slide 9 Ethnicity and over-representation % of indigenous children in population aged 0-17 years % of indigenous children in out-of-home care Disproportio nality rate Alberta 1254 4.5 Queensland6.3233.7 NSW4.0287.0 New Zealand24351.5 Washington284 (England African- Caribbean) 1.22.52 Slide 10 Rates entering care per 10,000 Legal status on entering care (in care) Parental request/agreement Court/ Admin order Australia (14%) (86%) Alberta (11%) (89%) Denmark92% (91%)8% (9%) England67% (31%)33% (69%) France (13%) (87%) Japan (>90%) ( Main reason given for child entering care COUNTRY / STATE Abuse/neg lct. Parental disabil. /illness Disabil./ othr probs of child Abandon / no parent Relatnshp Other fam probs NSW42%8% 43% Denmark6% 56%5%27% Japan20%16%3%25%35% UK/Eng.48%8% 9% 11%24% USA/Illin>90% USA/WashApprox 66% Approx 16% Slide 13 Age of children in care COUNTRY/STATE0-4/55-9/1010-14/1515+/16+ Alberta (10-14; 15-17)19%24%34%22% England19%22%43%16% Denmark6%16%43%35% New Zealand22%27%41% 8% Queensland30% 29%12% Sweden (0-3;4-9;10-14;15+) 6%16%28%50% USA28%20%24%12% Washington (0-5; 5-10)41%27%24%11% Slide 14 Age at entering care COUNTRY/ STATE % of all entrants agedSlide 15 Routes out of care and placement patterns AlbertaEnglandNZlandQnsldUSAFrance Foster carers 66%47%40%72%46% Relative foster 8%18%35%27%23%7% Adopters3%5%-- Group care 15%13%1%19%40% Other5%10%25%-4% Slide 16 The research process: a logic model Process Output Outcome Children, Parents, Carers Slide 17 Which children? Babies /older children Sibling groups With or without health problems or disabilities With or without parental consent From black or other minority ethnic groups From overseas (including refugees) To be adopted within or outside the family of birth Maltreated / sib maltreated / not maltreated Child offending/ substance misusing Slide 18 The placement process Family, foster carer or stranger adopters? What legal status? What sort of contact? With whom? When? Where? What financial support to whom? What social work and other services? What therapeutic input? - by whom? when? to whom? Slide 19 Grandparents Parents Siblings Relatives The prism of family placement Birth family Child Foster family Parents Foster parents children Other foster children Relatives Social Services Agencies From: Thoburn, J. (1995) propos de lvaluation de leffet thrapeutique du placement familial. In Sparation: le placement familial est-il un conte de fe? Rivages 7me journe dtude du groupe Haut Normand de Pedopsychiatrie. pp 69-82. Slide 20 Output and Outcomes measures Placement lasts/ disrupts (part of the family into adult life) Physical and psychological wellbeing Educational/ employment achievement Personal, cultural and adoptive identity Relationships in adult life Satisfaction of different family members Slide 21 Placement breakdown n=1165 Foster or adoptive permanent placements from care (Fratter et al, 1991, BAAF) Slide 22 The special needs of children who are looked after by the local authority From: Thoburn, J. (1994) Child Placement: Principles and Practice. 2 nd Edition, Aldershot: Ashgate. SELF-ESTEEM (The capacity to grow and make new and satisfying relationships as an adult) PERMANENCE means IDENTITY means Stability Belonging Family life Being loved Loving Knowing about birth family Knowing about past relationships Fitting the present with the past Appropriate contact with important people from the past Being valued as the person you are Slide 23 Variables associated with different outcomes the child, the childs family and biography the adoptive family, the social work and other services decision making placement practice/therapy Law, systems and procedures for care planning, review and service delivery Slide 24 Some implications for policy- makers in the global south The most cost effective way of providing sound evidence to support policy development is through good data collection and analysis Need to develop a minimum data set This needs to be accompanied by drilling down with quantitative and qualitative research on specific issues that the broad data suggest are significant Learn about programmes that appear to be effective in other countries BUT - DONT take interventions or programmes off the peg without carefully understanding the context and special vulnerabilities of children in your own country and the context in the country where the programme was developed. Slide 25 The search for safety, stability and belonging for children in care June Thoburn http://www1.uea.ac.uk/cm/home/schools/ssf/swk/peop le/jthoburn