Foster Carers' Involvement in Contact: Other Professionals' Views

Sen, Robin; McCormack, Jess

doi:10.1080/09503153.2011.611304

Cited by 5 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Too often, supervised contact and visits are primarily seen as moments where children can meet with a parent: foster parents only partially involved in conducting the visit and often relegated to a secondary role (Austerberry et al, ; Morrison et al, ; Nesmith, ). And yet, well‐supervised visits by social practitioners can be used to foster exchanges and discussions about the children between both families (Sanchirico & Jablonka, ; Sen & McCormack, ). For example, a recent study by Withington, Borton, Lonne, and Eviers () reveals that questioned foster families believe that the success and stability of placement depend on the quality of the relationship and the capacity of foster care families and case workers to develop positive relationship dynamics.…”

Section: Discussion and Implications For Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

“…These difficulties involve aggressive, violent, or inappropriate behaviour during contact or visits, frequent absences, and withdrawal by certain parents (Austerberry et al, ; Murray, Tarren‐Sweeney, & France, ). The foster parents likewise find it difficult to answer children's questions about their parents or the reasons for their placement, and feel powerless when confronted by the children's disappointment and distress when birth parents cancel or do not show up for a scheduled visit (Murray et al, ; Sen & McCormack, ). Various studies also point to the difficulties foster parents have when dealing with children's behaviour before or after contact.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The relationship between foster care families and birth families in a child welfare context: The determining factors

Châteauneuf

Turcotte

Drapeau

2017

Child & Family Social Work

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Children placed in foster care families usually continue to see their birth parents in supervised and home visits. These children deal with the fact that they belonged to two families in a context where the relationship between the two families is sometimes complex and tense. Based on 45 semi-structured interviews conducted with foster care families and kinship foster care families, the present study examines the relationship between foster care parents and birth parents in a placement context, and focuses on the factors affecting the nature and quality of this relationship. The results showed that the quality of the relationship dynamics varies according to the following: how well and how often the parent-child visits took place, the birth parents' characteristics, and the foster carers' attitudes. The results also showed that placements in kinship foster care families were more likely to result in conflict and tension between the two parties than placements in regular foster care families. KEYWORDSchild welfare, contact (with birth relatives), family placement, foster care (family), kinship care, parenting/parenthood

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Section: Discussion and Implications For Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relationship between foster care families and birth families in a child welfare context: The determining factors

Châteauneuf

Turcotte

Drapeau

2017

Child & Family Social Work

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The research on contact to date has been largely descriptive and focused primarily on the type, nature, frequency, location and supervision of contact between children in care and their parents (Sen & McCormack 2011;Fernandez & Atwool 2013;Taplin & Mattick 2014). Some research has investigated the experiences of participants to help tailor supervised contact services.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interventions to improve supervised contact visits between children in out of home care and their parents: a systematic review

Bullen

Taplin

McArthur

et al. 2016

Child & Family Social Work

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Although the importance of contact between children in care and their parents, when safe, is accepted, there is limited research about supervised face‐to‐face contact. There is no literature that has systematically critiqued how supervised contact can be best delivered. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the evidence for interventions aimed at improving the quality of contact visits between parents and their children who are in out‐of‐home care. Twelve studies were included in this review. Each study was graded and assigned scores according to the presence or absence of each of seven criteria. The studies demonstrated key similarities in the types of interventions provided, although delivery varied across group, individual and educational interventions. Parents reported improved capacity to manage their emotions and parents' satisfaction with the programmes was high. Although there was a lack of large scale, methodologically rigorous studies with long‐term follow‐up, some promising findings were identified: the literature indicates individual family support and group programmes have the potential to improve parent–child relationships and the quality of contact visits. This review suggests that future studies build on current evidence by addressing their methodological limitations and evaluating interventions that can be tailored to meet the needs of individual families.

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“…A study conducted in Scotland by Sen and McCormack (2011) focused on the experiences of 22 professionals in the field of contact management during short term placements, identifying strengths and difficulties in practice. The authors ascertained that foster carers have a small amount of involvement in contact, but that involvement hinders the establishment of a positive interaction with the biological family.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carers and Professionals' Perspectives on Foster Care Outcomes: The Role of Contact

Delgado

Carvalho

Pinto

et al. 2017

Journal of Social Service Research

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This study investigates the association between the contact of children or young people in care with their family, and the foster care placement evaluation (positive or negative) in Portugal. According to the perspectives of foster carers and service professionals' perceptions regarding children and young people's reactions, during and after the visits, are measured. Utilizing a quantitative approach, two fostering services teams and 140 foster carers completed questionnaires, which had 212 children in common. Results indicated that despite the importance of continued contact, especially for children and their parents, it was not determined to be essential to long-term placement. On one hand, there was the perception that a high percentage of children expressed positive reactions during and after the visit, while on the other hand, this didn't influence the perception of placement success. This study also showed significant differences between foster carers' and the professionals' perceptions on several dimensions of foster care, especially the children's reactions during visits. These differences need to be further analyzed in future research and the outcomes used to help improve contact management.

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Foster Carers' Involvement in Contact: Other Professionals' Views

Cited by 5 publications

References 5 publications

The relationship between foster care families and birth families in a child welfare context: The determining factors

The relationship between foster care families and birth families in a child welfare context: The determining factors

Interventions to improve supervised contact visits between children in out of home care and their parents: a systematic review

Carers and Professionals' Perspectives on Foster Care Outcomes: The Role of Contact

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