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Children who hope to be adopted from the care system frequently experience delays, unproductive disruption in attachments and difficulties locating new families. This article seeks to contribute to the search for effective adoption practice by exploring an approach developed in Australia, whereby restoration and 'long-term foster care with the view to adoption' are undertaken intensively but sequentially. When the child cannot return home, adoption is one of the options considered but no decision is made until a long-term foster family is well established. While planning happens concurrently, placements never have dual purposes and are therefore different from what is known as concurrent planning.This study is based on an internal agency examination of adoption records over a 10-year period. Open adoptions were ultimately achieved for one-third of those who entered long-term care, and the children had a wide range of ages and included sibling groups and those with behavioural difficulties. Adoption took, on average, 4.4 years to finalise but there was wide variation in timeframes, with younger children being adopted more quickly. Perhaps most significantly, a permanent placement was found relatively soon for children of all ages, as they did not have to wait for a family willing to commit to adoption or endure lengthy legal proceedings. The adoption was most timely when both restoration and long-term care teams were managed within one Downloaded from agency (albeit in separate programmes). Furthermore, permanent families were located for children for whom adoption ultimately proved to be inappropriate.

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The Australian Government also recently commissioned a study on 'Transition from care: Avoidable costs to governments of alternative pathways of young people exiting the formal child protection care system in Australia'. The key purpose of the study is to inform Ministers, governments and non-government organisations about the current alternate pathways young people, who have left formal care, are believed to follow and what the use of these pathways cost governments over time.

The book focuses on a study of 210 children in out-of-home care in Australia who were adopted over a 30-year period; 93 were traced for an average of 18 years after placement. The requirement for regular face-to-face contact with birth parents was considered beneficial by 69% of participants. Other findings show the adoptees’ extreme vulnerability, improved stability post adoption and the importance of adoptive parents’ commitment in facilitating positive outcomes. They also imply that child protection policy should focus on strengthening family support and more timely decision-making when parents cannot overcome their difficulties. Policy for children in long-term foster care should focus on reducing instability, increasing the quality of care and providing better care leaving support. Internationally, adoption policy needs to reflect the increased similarities between adoption and fostering engendered by open adoption from care, and acknowledge their implications for recruitment, training, contact arrangements and post-adoption support.