Understanding Looked After Children is an accessible guide to understanding the mental health needs of children in foster care and the role of foster carers and support networks in helping these children. The authors provide foster carers with an insight into the psychological issues experienced by children in the care system, and the impact of these issues on the foster family. Chapters cover cultural, social and legal structures associated with foster care and both the relevant child psychology theory and examples drawn from real-life situations. The authors give advice on how to address common psychological issues in collaboration with multi-agency professionals, as well as how to access to statutory services. They also explain the possible impact of assessments on foster children and the causes and management of foster carers' own feelings of frustration, anger or disappointment with social and mental health services or the placement itself. Chapters are complemented by case studies, and the book includes a helpful glossary to common terminology. Understanding Looked After Children is essential reading for registered foster carers and those considering fostering, as well as adoptive parents, and a useful reference for trainee and experienced practitioners in the care system, including social workers, psychologists, counsellors, teachers and others looking after vulnerable children.

This revised edition details organisational systems and structures that are part of the assessment and planning process for looked after children. This is closely interwoven with discussions about their emotional development, educational, health and cultural needs and how these needs can be met through social work and a range of other services. The views of looked after children are highlighted through case studies and summaries of research findings, and the range of skills and knowledge necessary to support looked after children through the key events they experience, including loss, change and the development of new relationships, are explained and illustrated.

Understanding Looked After Children is an accessible guide to understanding the mental health needs of children in foster care and the role of foster carers and support networks in helping these children. The authors provide foster carers with an insight into the psychological issues experienced by children in the care system, and the impact of these issues on the foster family. Chapters cover cultural, social and legal structures associated with foster care and both the relevant child psychology theory and examples drawn from real-life situations. The authors give advice on how to address common psychological issues in collaboration with multi-agency professionals, as well as how to access to statutory services. They also explain the possible impact of assessments on foster children and the causes and management of foster carers' own feelings of frustration, anger or disappointment with social and mental health services or the placement itself. Chapters are complemented by case studies, and the book includes a helpful glossary to common terminology. Understanding Looked After Children is essential reading for registered foster carers and those considering fostering, as well as adoptive parents, and a useful reference for trainee and experienced practitioners in the care system, including social workers, psychologists, counsellors, teachers and others looking after vulnerable children.

1. The book sets a context for the background of the care population in Wales, and charts research that explores educational experiences, outcomes, and the interventions put in place that seek to alleviate the educational disadvantages experienced by children and young people in care. 2. The book draws on empirical research to explore the lived experiences of care experienced children and young people, in a range of contexts and sites, including the home, the school, alternative educational institutions, contact centres, and the natural environment. 3. The book documents the ‘doing’ of research and methodological approaches that work directly with participants, involving participatory, qualitative, reflexive and collaborative techniques and innovative research methodologies.

Assessment, intervention and living with children who are looked after or adopted all require an understanding of psychology and its application. This innovative collection makes thinking psychologically about looked after and adopted children accessible and, in doing so, provides an insight into the world of these children. Informed by research, practice and psychological theory, this volume provides an overview of the area and considers the context for helping children change and develop. It goes on to describe in detail the techniques and approaches used by clinicians, and explains how interventions can be developed and adapted for children and young people living in residential, foster and adoptive care. Careful consideration is also given to carers and families living with these children. With its multi-disciplinary approach, Thinking Psychologically About Children Who Are Looked After and Adopted will appeal to all professionals involved in the care and education of placed children. It will also be of interest to policy makers and lecturers and students of social work.

`This is a very useful introductory text...it is well structured, has a very accessible style, and guides students through exercises that are relevant and appropriate. The book is unique in that it goes beyond general textbooks and I will be very happy to recommend it to my students' - Beth Humphries, Reader in Social Work, Lancaster University The role of research in social work has become increasingly critical and relevant to training and practice. Social Work Research has been designed to address this and to demonstrate the importance of research for improving social work practice. Written in an engaging and accessible style, the book explains the links between practice, knowledge and research. It succeeds in bridging the gap between theory and reality by discussing a range of research paradigms and placing them in the context of professional social work. It also goes beyond other textbooks to discuss the political and ethical contexts that are intrinsic to social work practice. Other key features of the book include: · Fulfills QAA benchmarks in social work training - social work research is a required topic on undergraduate degrees. · Addresses topical issues such as the need for evidence-based practice and an awareness of ethics. · International in scope - draws upon international literature · Grounded in 'real-life' research through case studies · User-friendly and student-focused, it includes student exercises and further reading sections. Social Work Research will prove an invaluable resource for students, researchers and trainees undertaking research in social work.

This study aims to understand from people who have experienced being looked after, what helped them become and feel successful.

Life story work is a term often used to describe an approach that helps looked after and adopted children to talk and learn about their life experiences with the help of a trusted adult. This book is an essential step-by-step guide for carers and professionals seeking to carry out life story work with a traumatised or vulnerable child in their care. Underpinned by positive psychology and drawing on up-to-date research and real-life practice, the book offers a sound theoretical understanding of life story work as well as a practical and easy-to-use programme of sessions. Each session covers the equipment and information needed, a consideration of who is best placed to carry out the work, and answers to commonly raised questions. Also discussed are age-appropriate approaches and ideas for extending each session into other activities and methods to make it more feasible for life story work to be a shared activity between two or three adults who know the child well. This book gives professionals and carers the confidence to carry out life story work in a way that is sensitive to the child’s needs and positive for their self-perception and relationships.

Drawing on the findings of the largest recent study into foster care in the UK, and including quotes from children themselves, this book examines the impact on children three years after they have left foster care.

This book provides authoritative, clinical guidance for carers and adopters on why toileting issues can occur and what can be done about it. In straightforward language, it explains how children's difficult early experiences can affect their behaviour, the various physical, emotional and psychological causes, how to engage with social work and health professionals to explore this difficulty, and what solutions may be offered. In the second half of the book, a range of case studies describe what it is like to parent an affected child, how families have managed the situation, and how solutions were found for the children's problems.