Fostering in crisis

A report published recently by the Fostering Network, Clark, H. (2010). Bursting at the Seams, highlights the crisis in fostering preciptated by the unprecedented rise in the number of children in need of foster placement in the wake of the baby Peter Connolly case. BBC Newsnight, August 4 also reported on the issue. Charity Barnardos claimed today that govenment data shows that children in England and Wales can wait up to 65 weeks for court decisions on whether they should be permanantly taken into care, leaving children vunerable in family homes or in unstable temporary foster placements. the problem has been exacerbated by the husge rise in cases and the declining status of social workers which has seen courts call for more independant assessments, rather than trust the judgement of social workers involved on the ground. See Guardian August 9, 2010.

New report on public services

Buddery, P. et al (2010). Equality cohesion and public services. 2020 Public Services Trust. The Commission on 2020 Public Services was established by the 2020 Public Services Trust to make recommendations on the possiblilites for public service reform which enables greater progress on inequality in the face of financial constraint.

Children on the front line of UK Border Control

Safe at last? : children on the front line of UK Border control (2010), published by Refugee and Migrant Justice outlines the alleged inhumane and illegal experiences of unaccompanied children at the hands UK Border Control Agency, on entering the UK, and the new Statutory duty of the agency to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

Recent E-documents

Department for Children, Schools and Families (2010). Use of force guidance: short summary. This is primarily aimed at teachers but may have relivence for residential settings.
Neil, E. et al (2010). Supporting post adoption contact in complex cases. Department for Children, Schools and Families. From the research brief series. A fuller report will be published by BAAF.
Farmer, E. (2010). An investigation of family finding and matching in adoption - briefing paper. Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Facebook and post adoption contact

The Guardian, June 19 carried an interesting article on Facebook and the challenges which social networking sites present in social work in adoption and fostering. The task of tracing birth parents or birth children has been made much easier for the parties in adoption and has led to a huge increase in unmediated contact between birth parents and children. BAAF are also publishing a new guide Facing up to Facebook: a survival guide for adoptive families.

New Government - new review of social work in the England

Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education has engaged Professor Eileen Munro of the LSE to conduct an Independent Review of Child Protection in England. Michale Gove's letter outlines the scope of the review in the areas of early intervention, empowering and supporting front line social workers and maximising transparency and accountability. Following the commissioning of the review Professor Munro stated in a BBC radio interview that she favoured a team approach as modelled in Hackney, where decisions and responsibilities for an individual case were shoulderd by a group of professionals, with administrative work on cases being performed by an administrative worker on the team, leaving social workers with more time to spend on home visits. BASW have commented favourably on Professor Munro's appointment. See also Guardian, June 10.

Professor Munro recently had published the article "Learning to reduce risk in child protection", British Journal of Social Work 40(4), pp. 1135-1151.

Another reform will see the full publication of Serious Case Reviews, starting with the two Peter Connolly reviews. See BASW.

Poverty in the UK

The new UK Government has published its State of the nation report: poverty, worklessness and welfare dependency in the UK (2010), Cabinet Office.
Scottish executive have also published on poverty this week. Growing up in Scotland is a longitudinal study funded by the Scottish govenment and carried out by the Scottish Centre for Social Research:
Growing up in Scotland: the circumstances of persistently poor children summary report.
Further information on the Growing up in Scotland study and further research findings can be found at the Growing Up in Scotland website