This paper considers therapeutic approaches to residential care with specific attention to the question of family involvement. It builds on a body of literature indicating the potential of residential care as a positive intervention for young people, and examines the contention that – even when family problems contribute to a young person's accommodation in residential care – family involvement could improve long-term outcomes. The literature reviewed indicates that family involvement is indeed important. Mixed research findings reflect the diversity of approaches to family-centred practice, but there is evidence of benefits in relation to a range of child outcomes. However, the literature also shows that family-centred residential care is not easy to achieve. More than parent–child contact, it entails genuine involvement of parents, in decision-making and in children's daily lives. Professionals – including social workers and residential care workers – must not only be concerned with the care and development of the child, but also with the role of the parent in their child's development, understood within an ecological perspective
In England, placement within the looked after system is not viewed as a desirable long-term solution for most children, and policy has prioritised continued contact with parents, and swift return home, wherever possible. This review examines policy approaches to work with families of looked after children in England and in three other European countries: Denmark, France and the Netherlands, aiming to identify areas for shared learning in relation to this challenging area of policy and practice. The research highlights relationships between care populations and policy understandings of the purpose of work with families, including understandings of children's and/or parents' rights.
En protection de l'enfance, comme dans d'autres dispositifs éducatifs, le principe d'une implication des parents tend à s'imposer dans le discours officiel. Dans la pratique, cependant, le placement d'un enfant en institution ou en famille entraîne un éloignement et une disqualification des parents. À partir d'une recherche menée dans quatre pays européens, cet article tente de cerner ce que recouvre la notion d'implication et comment les parents peuvent, malgré le placement, être acteurs de l'éducation de leur enfant. Les professionnels et les institutions ont un rôle central dans la manière dont ils s'adressent aux parents, leur confient des tâches éducatives et organisent les moments passés entre parents et enfants.
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