The Government's focus on driving up the number of adoptions should not be delivered at the expense of other routes to permanence, such as special guardianship or kinship care, for children for whom adoption may not be suitable. The Committee is also concerned that there is a significant lack of information about rates of adoption breakdown. The most pressing issue is that of post-adoption support. Children adopted from care have a range of needs due to their early life experiences, often of abuse or neglect, which are not resolved simply by being adopted. There should be a statutory duty on local authorities and other service commissioning bodies to ensure the provision of post-adoption support. Cost concerns need to take into account the significant amount of money which local authorities save when a child is adopted from care. The drive to increase adoptions must also not undermine preventative programmes and efforts to keep birth families together. The Committee also recommends a pilot scheme offering support to families who have had children removed from their care. Other recommendations from the Committee include: encouraging more local authorities to move towards joint adoption services with neighbouring authorities and adoption agencies; ending the current practice of employing Independent Reviewing Officers (IROs) within local authorities and, instead, employing them externally, giving them the independence needed to promote the best interests of children; providing a designated teacher with responsibility for the wellbeing for adopted children within every school; and improving the training and supervision of social workers

The audience for these documents includes those interested in familiarizing themselves with the child welfare, alcohol and other drug services, and court systems. These documents are also intended for jurisdictions interested in or in the process of developing cross-systems relationships. The primer and guide are targeted to management and administrative personnel in State, county, and tribal jurisdictions' alcohol and drug services, child welfare, and court systems. The primer is not an exhaustive review of each system's mandates, practices, and policies. However, this document does provide an overview of the framework, target population, key legislation and funding sources, and structure and organization of services for each system.

The first social history of disability and difference in American adoption, from the Progressive Era to the end of the twentieth century. Disability and child welfare, together and apart, are major concerns in American society. Today, about 125,000 children in foster care are eligible and waiting for adoption, and while many children wait more than two years to be adopted, children with disabilities wait even longer. In Familial Fitness, Sandra M. Sufian uncovers how disability operates as a fundamental category in the making of the American family, tracing major shifts in policy, practice, and attitudes about the adoptability of disabled children over the course of the twentieth century. Chronicling the long, complex history of disability, Familial Fitness explores how notions and practices of adoption have—and haven’t—accommodated disability, and how the language of risk enters into that complicated relationship. We see how the field of adoption moved from widely excluding children with disabilities in the early twentieth century to partially including them at its close. As Sufian traces this historical process, she examines the forces that shaped, and continue to shape, access to the social institution of family and invites readers to rethink the meaning of family itself.

This volume brings together a selection of the most influential and informative English language refereed journal articles on children in out-of-home care, their birth relatives and carers. The articles, which include empirical research and critiques of policy and practice, are mainly from the UK and USA, but include some coverage of child placement policy and practice in Australia and mainland Europe. The volume starts with a joint introductory chapter by the two distinguished authors (one American, one British) reviewing the state of knowledge on children in care and drawing attention to other important sources not included as chapters.

"Containing the public messages, speeches, and statements of the President", 1956-1992.