International perspectives

While we know from Harriet Ward’s work that children in local authority care in England move too frequently, often as part of planned transitions, and often with adverse consequences for children’s continuous connections... [ view full abstract ]

While we know from Harriet Ward’s work that children in local authority care in England move too frequently, often as part of planned transitions, and often with adverse consequences for children’s continuous connections to school, health services, friendships and carers, we do not have a comprehensive picture of the factors that precede and follow on from placement change. This presentation will use data from the English part of a Swiss-German-English study to examine multiple perspectives on the process of placement disruption. We interviewed young people and foster carers in a rural and an urban area using a narrative approach, and conducted focus groups with social workers supervising foster carers, aiming to build up a detailed analysis of rationales for, and interpretations of the consequences of, changed placements. These will be preliminary findings.