Considerable knowledge exists about the commissioning of children's fostering and adoption placements from external agencies within a context of shared corporate parenting. However, the impact of governmental change in the UK from May 2010, and particularly that of austerity measures, has yet to be determined. This article explores the experiences of foster-care providers in one English region in the year following the government's first Spending Review. It refers to the findings of earlier foster-care commissioning research and considers these alongside some policy ideas put forward by influential figures sympathetic to the government. It also considers whether the research evidence of commissioning adoption services is reflected in the empirical evidence reported here and if this is prescient for foster-care. The findings of this study shed light on the initial effects of austerity measures on both local authority commissioners and independent fostering providers (IFPs). Whilst collaborative working relationships remain, the study highlights legal and procedural factors which may distort or threaten effective foster-care provision. It concludes that suggested changes to policy and practice, during the current Coalition government's term of office in the UK, are likely to have significant consequences both for local authorities and IFPs. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved.

Since the 1980s, the fostering and adoption of children by lesbians and gay men in the United Kingdom has gained considerable acceptance in legislation and policy. This paper traces these changes, particularly those occurring during the New Labour period of 'liberal equality'. Despite this progress, as evidenced by the backlash from some leaders of the religious and political right, it is argued that prejudice continues. Within this context of new opportunities, but continued prejudice, this paper identifies two important areas for adoptive parents, foster carers and social work practitioners: firstly, the challenges that might confront gay and lesbian young people and secondly, the process by which gay and lesbian people are assessed as potential carers by fostering and adoption agencies.

The development of foster care as the placement of choice for children in care in Britain has been encouraged both in policy and practice. This has been accompanied by the severe reduction in residential care facilities for children and young people and the crisis in recruiting and retaining sufficient numbers of local authority approved and registered foster carers. The result has been a steady growth in the number of independent fostering providers (IFPs) and the increasing proportion of looked after children placed with their agencies' foster carers. In the past 20 years or so, the independent sector has become a major provider of placements and related children's services and this has presented local authorities with considerable cost. During this time, collaboration between local authority commissioners and independent fostering providers has gone through many different phases. By examining a series of linked studies between 1997 and 2010, Clive Sellick explores how the experiences and views of social workers, managers and foster carers have influenced the identities of the IFPs, the working relationships and organisational arrangements which have developed between staff and carers of both sectors and the impact of related policy throughout the New Labour era (1997–2010) in the UK.

Foster placements for children in care in the UK are being increasingly provided by non-governmental organizations. However, although local authorities are purchasing almost one third of their required placements from these external agencies, the UK has not yet followed the examples of other English speaking countries. In parts of the USA and Australia all fostering and other child welfare services have been wholly outsourced or transferred from the public to private and non-profit organizations. A number of these initiatives have been independently evaluated and some of their findings resonate with what seems to be happening in the UK. This article explores these but also other factors which appear to distinguish the policy and practice of foster care in the UK from those of the USA and Australia. Using theory related to the privatization of welfare and relevant domestic and international research, the article examines the development of external commissioning of foster care in Britain. In the light of changing law, ideology and policy, the article concludes by speculating on how the future of fostering and wider child welfare provision in the UK may look, at a time of political change and economic austerity.

Local authorities across England and Wales have been purchasing fostering placements from the independent sector for their children in care since before the start of the New Labour era in the mid 1990s. Significant developments have occurred since then with a clear policy steer towards public sector commissioning of all children's, including fostering, services from private and voluntary organisations. This article explores, with reference to a recent study, how policy directives from central government have impacted upon the practice of six local authorities and six independent fostering agencies in respect of the commissioning and provision of long-term and permanent fostering placements and related services. It examines the experiences and views of key commissioners and providers in these agencies and sets these alongside each other. In so doing, a number of themes are apparent and, from these, a new policy direction may be emerging. At a time of imminent public finance constraints and an emerging political consensus, the requirement for local authorities to outsource fostering services from the non-governmental sector looks increasingly likely.

Support services for the birth relatives of adopted children have received far less research scrutiny than those for adopters and the children themselves. Clive Sellick reports the first stage 'mapping' survey of a government-commissioned study into birth relative support services and services supporting contact following changes in policy and legislation. The type, range and delivery of such services, commissioned or provided by local authority and voluntary adoption agencies and adoption support agencies in England and Wales, are examined. The survey found that good opportunities exist for linking birth relative and contact support services. However, real challenges remain in promoting support services and reaching birth relatives and in funding and commissioning such services, particularly from the non-governmental sector.

Foster care in the UK, especially England, has developed a broad base of service delivery. No longer an almost exclusively public sector activity, foster placements and related therapeutic and educational services are increasingly located in the non-governmental sector and delivered by independent fostering providers (IFPs). As this sector has grown, so too have contracting arrangements between IFPs and local authority purchasers, most of whom have faced considerable difficulties in recruiting and retaining sufficient numbers of foster carers for their looked after children. With the strengthening policy shift towards commissioning, different contracting models are emerging. These are described with reference both to recent studies and a broader critique of relevant legal, policy, ideological and managerial developments in order to speculate about the future of a mixed economy of foster care.

This book is aimed at students or trainees, and qualified practitioners in the children’s workforce, such as teachers, social workers and clinical and educational psychologists, especially at a time of organizational change following the Every Child Matters report and subsequent legislative and policy developments. Its author, Tom Billington, is a former educational psychologist in a local authority who now works in childcare proceedings. He poses what he terms ‘question themes’. There are five of these: how do we speak of children; how do we speak with children; how do we write of children; how do we listen to children; and how do we listen to ourselves (when working with children)? A number of other ‘recurring themes’ are also used to gain answers to these questions and these are historical accounts, children’s voices, the nature of communication between adults and children and issues of power underpinned by ‘a belief that too many children suffer disadvantage unnecessarily in our society’ (p. 7).

Foster care has become the principal placement of choice for children and young people in public care in the United Kingdom (UK). This has been accompanied by a significant growth in its research scrutiny connected to a busy policy agenda, especially since 1997. With its increased usage, fostering has encountered both difficulties and developments. Children often have emotional and behavioural problems which strain their foster families to their limits and risk placement breakdown. Public sector foster carers continue to be in short supply and keeping them engaged in fostering remains a challenge. Major developments have occurred in response to these difficulties. The use of relatives as kinship carers has increased substantially and the non-governmental or independent fostering sector has grown rapidly. Until comparatively recently, the knowledge base of foster care in Britain was limited, but the past decade has seen that change and now a substantial body of research knowledge is available in the UK. Copyright © 2006 National Children's Bureau.

Policy developments since 1997 have changed the nature of foster care placements and related educational and therapeutic services. A succession of initiatives aimed at improving placement quality, choice and stability for children and their foster families has had two major impacts. The first is the significant expansion of independent fostering providers (IFPs) alongside local authority fostering agencies. The second has been the change in attitude and working arrangements between staff and managers in both these sectors as they adjust to the government's commissioning agenda for the mixed economy of foster care provision. Although the first area has received some research scrutiny, the second area has not. In the absence of a relevant social work literature base this article explores a series of legal and policy studies of 'relational contracting' alongside a recent study of working arrangements between local authority and IFP managers. It concludes that there are lessons to be learnt for fostering agencies from these studies of contracting and the practice of trust.

Local authorities in Britain have been purchasing foster placements and related services from independent fostering agencies or providers (IFPs) for many years. These are often made on an unplanned or 'spot purchased' basis and many local authorities have incurred significant budgetary overspends or been criticized for poor child-care practice. In parts of the USA and Australia, governments have required public authorities to 'outsource' all or most of their foster-care responsibilities to private or voluntary agencies. Where these have been independently evaluated, a number of deficits have been identified. A middle position of local authorities and IFPs entering into service level or contractual agreements has emerged in Britain where each sector attempts to plan and match its respective needs and services and to predict and control costs. This paper explores how some local authority and IFP managers have developed working arrangements with one another in order to achieve this position. At a time when the British government is providing a strong policy steer towards inter-sector commissioning in foster-care, this paper suggests a framework for collaboration.

This book is the published account of a comparative study of welfare provision in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France and the UK between 1997 and 1999. The authors and their fellow researchers in each of these countries employ a mixed methodology. This includes the use of small-scale case studies of low and middle-income families living in small cities (Mannheim, Nantes, Roskilde, Umea and York) in the five countries. Early on, the reader is introduced to what appears to be the key concept of this study. As the authors put it: ‘We consider the mixed economy of welfare to be the new overall consensus on the future of welfare administration in Europe. This new ideology resolves the century-old conflict among liberal, conservative and socialist approaches to welfare provisions by advocating partnerships between public sector institutions and commercial and/or voluntary organisations’ (p. 2). This is a comprehensive account of social policy theory. It serves as an introduction to welfare typologies in each of the five countries, how these have emerged and developed, as well as where they are likely to lead. The authors provide a cogent narrative of historical, political, religious and cultural similarities and differences within these adjacent European countries. Four welfare types are adapted in the context of the five countries incorporating the residual, poverty-oriented, male breadwinner, family support and local state provision approaches in order to make comparisons between them. There are perhaps few surprises. In managing the balance between work and family life, for example, middle-class Western-European families have access to financial resources which confers freedom of choice for child-care arrangements within the welfare market. Low-income families, on the other hand, often have to rely on help from their own families such as the children’s grandparents for the provision of childcare.

Journal Article Evaluating Family Support. Thinking Internationally, Thinking Critically, Ilan Katz and John Pinkerton (eds), Chichester, Wiley, 2003, pp. xviii + 345, ISBN 0 471 49723 1, £65.00 Get access Clive Sellick Clive Sellick Senior Lecturer in Social Work, University of East Anglia, Norwich Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The British Journal of Social Work, Volume 34, Issue 1, January 2004, Pages 132–133, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bch013 Published: 01 January 2004

Foster care is the preferred placement option for children and young people in the public care system in Britain. In recent years, fostering has been the subject of extensive policy and research review and its practice and services have been widely examined. Although still provided principally within the public, local authority sector, there has been a significant growth in the use of independent fostering agencies and a steady use of the fostering services of established voluntary child-care organizations. This paper reports a recent review of innovative fostering practice in all sectors across the four countries of the UK, which was commissioned by the Social Care Institute for Excellence. All British fostering agencies were invited to submit examples of what they considered to be innovative or effective in respect of six main categories: foster carer recruitment and training; retention and job satisfaction; placement provision; fostering children with complex needs; service provision; and user evaluation. These were examined in the light of relevant research knowledge to determine the extent of 'research-mindedness' amongst fostering agencies. The authors conclude with a critique of four key factors which are impacting upon contemporary fostering practice in Britain.

Journal Article Solving Problems in Foster Care: Key Issues for Young People, Foster Carers and Social Services, Philippa Padbury with Nick Frost, London, The Children's Society, 2002, pp.xvi + 116, ISBN 1 899783 44X, £12.95 Get access Clive Sellick Clive Sellick Senior Lecturer in Social Work, University of East Anglia Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The British Journal of Social Work, Volume 33, Issue 3, 1 April 2003, Pages 417–418, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/33.3.417 Published: 01 April 2003

Child & Family Social WorkVolume 7, Issue 4 p. 327-328 Social Work in the British Isles Malcolm Payne, Malcolm Payne Jessica Kingsley, London and Philadelphia, 2002, 287 pp. £16.95. ISBN 1 85302 763 4Search for more papers by this authorSteven Shardlow (eds), Steven Shardlow (eds) Jessica Kingsley, London and Philadelphia, 2002, 287 pp. £16.95. ISBN 1 85302 763 4Search for more papers by this authorClive Sellick, Clive Sellick Jessica Kingsley, London and Philadelphia, 2002, 287 pp. £16.95. ISBN 1 85302 763 4Search for more papers by this author Malcolm Payne, Malcolm Payne Jessica Kingsley, London and Philadelphia, 2002, 287 pp. £16.95. ISBN 1 85302 763 4Search for more papers by this authorSteven Shardlow (eds), Steven Shardlow (eds) Jessica Kingsley, London and Philadelphia, 2002, 287 pp. £16.95. ISBN 1 85302 763 4Search for more papers by this authorClive Sellick, Clive Sellick Jessica Kingsley, London and Philadelphia, 2002, 287 pp. £16.95. ISBN 1 85302 763 4Search for more papers by this author First published: 25 August 2009 https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2206.2002.t01-4-00258.xCitations: 5Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume7, Issue4November 2002Pages 327-328 RelatedInformation