Fostering Adolescents

Zusatztext

<p>Adolescents are the hardest group to foster and have high rates of placement breakdown. Elaine Farmer and her colleagues examine what helps to make their placements work. Key issues for this age group are explored, including peer relationships, sexual health and relationships, the impact of the adolescent on the foster family and balancing their need for safety and autonomy.<br><br>Based on government-commissioned research and part of the Supporting Parents initiative, this book addresses each stage of the care process, from placement selection to leaving foster care. The authors consider which kinds of professional support at which stages make a difference, the foster carer parenting skills that are crucial and how foster carers can draw on professional support to manage adolescents' behaviour, maintain their educational attainments and negotiate ongoing contact with their birth parents. They draw out recommendations for policy and practice in the areas of:<br><br>how strain on carers can be reduced<br><br>the role foster carers' own children play in placement success or breakdown<br><br>single foster carers<br><br>how to contain the young people who are hardest to foster<br><br>key training requirements for foster carers<br><br>managing contact<br><br>how foster carers and social workers respond to gender differences in teenagers.<br><br>A rich source of recommendations for social workers, policy makers and carers, this book will be invaluable to anyone involved in the fields of child welfare and child protection.</p>

Autorenportrait

Elaine Farmer is Director of the Research Centre for Family Policy and Child Welfare in the School for Policy Studies at Bristol University, and has researched and written widely in the field of child welfare and child protection. She has a background in social work practice and teaches on the qualifying programme in social work and the post-qualifying award in child care. Sue Moyers is a Research Associate in the School for Policy Studies at Bristol University. She has taught for the Open University and also worked as a prison tutor and as a counsellor. Jo Lipscombe is a Research Associate in the School for Policy Studies at Bristol University. Her research and teaching interests include youth justice, the interface between the care and justice systems, the criminalisation of children and childhood, and children's participation in research.

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