Looked after children: can existing services ever succeed?

Should the state continue to provide substitute care? And are existing residential and foster services the right ones? Unit Co-Director Michael Little explores these questions in an article in the new edition of Adoption & Fostering.

"The political and financial fault lines of society are shifting" he argues. "In the next five years there will be about 20 per cent less money and as yet, an unquantified increase in social need and greater freedom for local bodies to marshall limited resources for maximum impact. Can we justify existing services in this context?"
 
His case against existing provision for looked after children is that it is unethical and belongs to a different historical context, and that it selects children in a haphazard way and has a weak evidence base.
 
He hopes that, while these views might be controversial, "a handful of local authorities and other agencies will seriously explore alternative strategies to orthodox social care provision."
 
The edition also includes a response by Ian Sinclair from the University of York.
 
Reference
Little, M. (2010) 'Looked after children: can existing services ever succeed?', Adoption & Fostering 34 (2), 3-7.
 
Follow this link to our publications page to view the article online:
http://www.dartington.org.uk/looked-after-children-can-existing-services...