Abstract.Emotional and behavioural difficulties of a sample of children and young people were identified at the point of entry to local authority care by analysis of social work case files. The files indicated high levels of need, including that in children aged under five.Bedwetting was identified as an important issue related to the physical health and emotional well-being of looked after children. There was an association between bedwetting and emotional and behavioural problems.Analysis of placement types at entry to care showed that significantly more boys than girls were first placed in residential care.

The unstable nature of placements impacts on children's education, health and emotional development and contributes to the poor outcomes of care. The present study examined the moves of 242 long-stay children for a minimum of 3.5 years after they entered the care of six English local authorities using quantitative data extracted from case files and qualitative data from interviews with children and young people.During the study period 965 placements were made and 843 ended. The median length of placements in foster family care was four months and 3.5 months in residential care, and did not substantially increase until the third year of the care episode. While the numbers of placements differed according to children's ages and attributes, even very young children with no additional support needs experienced frequent moves. Instability in care replicated children's experiences within their birth families and reinforced perceptions of transience. While some placements broke down, the majority of moves were planned transitions embedded in the case management process. These may be a response to inadequate resources, but they also reflect how social workers and the courts struggled to acknowledge that some parents would not be able to provide adequate care within a child's timescale.

Citation: WARD, H., 2011. Continuities and discontinuities: issues concerning the establishment of a persistent sense of self amongst care leavers. Children and Youth Services Review, 33 (12), pp. 2512Review, 33 (12), pp. -2518 Additional Information:• NOTICE: this is the author's version of a work that was accepted for publication in Children and Youth Services Review. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication.A definitive version was subsequently published in Children and Youth Services Review, 33 (12), pp. 2512 -2518 AbstractResearch in a number of countries has demonstrated the importance of developing a sense of belonging and connectedness as key factors that facilitate the move towards independence for young people leaving care (see Stein, 2008). This paper utilises findings from a longitudinal study of looked after children (including interviews with care leavers) to explore how the evidence from Canadian research into the significance of perceptions of self continuity for identity formation can improve our understanding of care leavers' experiences and the factors that may act as barriers to their making a smooth transition.The findings demonstrate the extent of disruption and instability that care leavers may experience both before, during and after the care episode. This lack of continuity is exemplified for many young people by the loss of treasured possessions such as mementoes of parents and photographs of previous homes and carers. Constant experience of transience may act as a barrier to the establishment of a sense of self continuity. This may increase the likelihood of leaving care becoming a transitional flashpoint during which difficulties in moving on to adulthood increase the propensity for young people to lose sight of the thread that connects their past to their future, and engage in self-destructive behaviours. Premature, compressed and accelerated transitions may increase the chances of this happening. The paper argues that greater attention to the preservation of possessions that have a symbolic value might be a simple means of helping care leavers develop a stronger sense of connectedness.Key words: care leavers; care leavers: sense of identity; children in out of home care: discontinuities; children in out-of-home care: possessions; IntroductionResearch in Australia has shown that 'a sense of belonging and connectedness' is a key factor in facilitating the move towards independence for young people leaving care (see Cashmore and Mendes, 2008;Cashmore and Paxman, 1996;Maunders, Liddell, Liddell and Green, 1999). A German study shows that 'the ability to connect biographically developed patterns of actions' plays a central role in transitions from care to independence (see Köngeter, Schröer and Zeller, 2008;Finkel, 2004). Two papers in this Special Issue (Ibrahi...

The association between local authority care and offending behaviour was examined in 250 looked after young people of the age of criminal responsibility. Whilst a greater number of the young people had committed offences than in the general population, the vast majority were law abiding. For those who did offend, the care episode itself was unlikely to have been the sole cause of their delinquency. The fi ndings suggest that the services offered once the young people entered local authority care did not succeed in combating established offending behaviour. Perhaps initiatives targeted in the community prior to entry to care may be more effective.

There is much evidence of instability in the care system and poor developmental outcomes for looked after children, but looked after children are far from being a homogenous group. Their lives, needs and experiences vary immensely. Harriet Ward, Tricia Skuse and Emily R Munro present the findings from a recent study of children's views of the care system in England (Skuse and Ward, 2003). They explore what children and young people did and did not like about being looked after, why some found it a beneficial experience while others did not, and discuss the reasons for their largely positive responses. Ordinary features of everyday life that peers would usually take for granted, such as having someone to talk to or doing ordinary family things like going to the cinema, were identified as benefits of the care system. These views and the expectations of looked after children need to be considered in the context of their past life experiences.