Strategy options for achieving permanency in the placement of children in northern ireland

Giltinan, Donal

doi:10.1080/13575279808413112

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…The aim of the conference was to re-examine adoption as a real option in the family and child care programme and to ensure that all the necessary systems were in place to support this. There was general agreement at this conference on the need for and importance of permanence in the lives of children in care (Giltinan, 1998).…”

Section: Adoption Care Pathwaymentioning

confidence: 98%

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

McSherry¹,

Weatherall²,

Malet³

et al. 2010

Adoption & Fostering

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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.

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Section: Adoption Care Pathwaymentioning

confidence: 98%

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

McSherry¹,

Weatherall²,

Malet³

et al. 2010

Adoption & Fostering

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“…However, Northern Ireland has continued to have a much smaller proportion of its children in public care adopted, 2.2% in 2000 compared with 4.7% in England and Wales (Social Services Inspectorate 2002). There is evidence over the last two years that the permanence agenda is being more enthusiastically embraced, and there have been extensive efforts to raise the profile of adoption as an option for children in public care (Giltenan 1998; Kelly 1999).…”

Section: The Study In Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adoption from care in Northern Ireland: problems in the process

Kelly

McSherry

2002

Child & Family Social Work

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This is a study of the processes for freeing children for adoption in Northern Ireland. The focus was the time taken from admission to care to adoption order. The findings confirmed that the process is dogged by delay at each stage. In total the average time from the child becoming looked after to the granting of an adoption order was 4.5 years. Most of the time taken was in the stages for which social services had lead responsibility, principally the decision to pursue adoption as the plan for a child. The children were very young when admitted to care – average age 1 year 7 months. Most were admitted to care because they were being neglected. Their parents were well known to social services and had multiple problems. Most parents unsuccessfully contested the social services’ application and this contributed much to the delay. Their former foster parents adopted almost half of the children and these children tended to be placed more quickly with their adopters than those placed with adopters who were not their foster parents prior to the adoption process.

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“…In this period over 1,000 children were being looked after in non-relative foster care for three years or more (Social Services Inspectorate, 1998). Since 1997 there have been attempts to kick-start 'permanence' policies (Giltinan, 1998;Kelly, 1999) and these years have seen an increase in the numbers of children being adopted from care. Despite these developments, the rate of children adopted from care in Northern Ireland is currently approximately two per cent, which is half of the English rate that was the subject of much critical comment in the Prime Minister's Review of Adoption (Performance and Innovation Unit, 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Freeing Order Processes in Northern Ireland: Painfully Slow

Kelly

McSherry²

2001

Adoption & Fostering

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Greg Kelly and Dominic McSherry describe the timescales involved in achieving freeing orders for 23 children in Northern Ireland between 1996 and 1999. There was delay at all stages in the process. The delays were particularly pronounced in social services and social services/legal services processes. The authors conclude that if adoption is to be made available to more children from state care, current arrangements, including legislation, will need revision and reform.

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Strategy options for achieving permanency in the placement of children in northern ireland

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

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

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

Adoption from care in Northern Ireland: problems in the process

Freeing Order Processes in Northern Ireland: Painfully Slow

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