Who Goes Where?: Young Children's Pathways through Care in Northern Ireland

Abstract

This is one of a series of articles reporting on the large-scale Northern Ireland care pathways and outcomes study (McSherry et al, 2008). The study has been examining a population of young children (n = 374) who were in care under five years of age in Northern Ireland and followed up across a four-year period (2000–2004). It has mapped these young children's care careers and explored factors relating to five care pathways that these children progressed along: towards adoption, long-term non-relative foster care, long-term relative foster care, residence order and return to birth parent/s. The authors, Dominic McSherry, Kerrylee Weatherall, Emma Larkin, Montse Fargas Malet and Greg Kelly, examine the children's care pathway patterns from 2000 to 2004 and identify the background factors that have influenced their specific care pathway. These background factors relate to the age of child, length of time in care, the child's health, the child's behaviour and regional variation. The findings indicate that although the care pathway patterns were to some extent similar to those found in England and Wales, there were differences peculiar to the Northern Ireland context.

Open Adoption: Adoptive Parents' Experiences of Birth Family Contact and Talking to Their Child about Adoption

“…The 'Pathways' study aims to profile the types of longterm placements provided for these children, to identify factors that predict the type of placement the children receive, and to explore how the children and their carers fare in the different types of placement McSherry et al, 2010). The study has had ethical approval granted by the Office for Research Ethics Committees in Northern Ireland.…”

“…The interviews with adoptive parents sought their perspectives on a range of issues concerning the child's welfare and their parenting experience, which have been reported on elsewhere and in this journal (McSherry et al, 2008;McSherry et al, 2010). These families adopted between 2001 and 2004, and the interviews were conducted in 2005-2006 when the children were aged between five and 11 years old.…”

In and out of home care decisions: The influence of confirmation bias in developing decision supportive reasoning

“…This is particularly important in relation to the critical issue as to when, and under what circumstances, a child should be removed from the care of their parents and into the care of the state. Commentators have noted wide variations evident in admission rates across the UK (McSherry et al, 2010).…”

Adoption and permanence planning in Scotland: Impact of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 on key processes and timescales

“…It is to the court dealing with the case to decide what provisions to give and to whom, though anyone who is part of the application, such as foster carers, can ask for specific provisions for themselves (Plumtree, 2011 & Kelly, 2010;Scottish Government, 2015). Although the 2007 Act did not make substantial changes to the court process with regard to adoptions, the research shows that this stage of permanence proceedings was progressed more quickly.…”

“…Altogether, 300 children from across the country were followed from their initial contact with services through to a court order being granted.All four governments in the United Kingdom have recognized that for children whose parents present risks such that they cannot be in their care that decisions on their permanent care should be made at the earliest opportunity and have introduced policies to this end(Anthony et al, 2016; Department for Education, 2015;McSherry, Weatherall, Larkin, Fargas Malet, PO: permanence order; PRO: parental responsibilities order; N = 294.…”