Introduction: International Issues and Debates Concerning Adoption

A history of systemic injustices and a lack of transparency have influenced public perceptions of domestic adoption. This book aims to introduce more empirical evidence into the debate by exploring the value of open adoption, as practised in Australia, as a route to permanence for abused and neglected children in out-of-home care who cannot safely return to their birth families. International evidence about the outcomes of adoption and foster care is discussed. The chapter introduces the Barnardos Australia Find-a-Family programme which has been finding adoptive homes since 1986 for non-Aboriginal children in care who are identified as ‘hard to place’. Regular post-adoption face-to-face contact with birth family members is an integral part of the adoption plan. The methodology for evaluating the outcomes for 210 children placed through the programme included case and court file analysis, a follow-up survey and interviews with adoptive parents and adult adoptees.

Responding to Intergenerational Food Security and Nutrition Education Needs With Remote Programming

In-person intergenerational programming focused on nutrition education and healthy food access among older adults and preschool children in care settings was abandoned last year when COVID forced center closures. Food for a Long Life (FFLL), a 5-year community-based participatory research (CBPR) project, re-oriented programming in response to heightened community food insecurity and social isolation during COVID. With county Extension agents, FFLL modified and initiated new partnerships to expand food pantry services for several hundred families and deliver nutrition programming to youth (n=28) and older adult (n=130) participants in two states. In this presentation we share how the CBPR method supported adaptive programming and evaluation while continuing to advance project goals, including to promote the sustainability of an intergenerational food pantry and nutrition programming delivery after funding ends in summer 2021.

The Reflective Fostering Programme—improving the wellbeing of children in care through a group intervention for foster carers: a randomised controlled trial

Background The needs of children in care are a government priority, yet the evidence base for effective interventions to support the emotional wellbeing of children in care is lacking. Research suggests that supporting the carer-child relationship, by promoting the carer’s reflective parenting, may be an effective approach to improving the wellbeing of these children. Methods The study comprises a definitive, superiority, two-armed, parallel, pragmatic, randomised controlled trial, with embedded process evaluation and economic evaluation, and an internal pilot, to evaluate the effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness, of the Reflective Fostering Programme. Randomisation is at the individual level using a 1:1 allocation ratio. The study is being conducted in local authority sites across England, and is targeted at foster carers (including kinship carers) looking after children aged 4 to 13. Consenting participants are randomly allocated to the Reflective Fostering Programme (intervention arm) in addition to usual support or usual support alone (control arm). The primary outcome is behavioural and emotional wellbeing of the child 12 months post-baseline, and secondary outcomes include the following: foster carer’s level of stress, quality of life, reflective capacity, compassion fatigue and burnout, placement stability, the quality of the child-carer relationship, child’s capacity for emotional regulation, and achievement of personalised goals set by the carer. Discussion A feasibility study has indicated effectiveness of the Programme in improving the child-carer relationship and emotional and behavioural wellbeing of children in care. This study will test the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of implementing the Reflective Fostering Programme as an additional aid to the support already available to local authority foster carers. Trial registration ISRCTN 70832140.

A critical analysis of the Assessment and Action Record (AAR) documentation: Examining the educational experiences of Black youth-in-care in Ontario

This article focuses on the Ontario Assessment and Action Record (AAR), used in child welfare to understand how this documentation supports (and fails to support) Black youth-in-care and their academic needs. We applied a critical review and analysis of three distinct but interconnected sources of data: 1) the AAR-C2-2016; 2) literature on the education of Black youth-in-care in Ontario; 3) policy and agency documents concerning how this group is faring. In our analysis of the AAR and its education dimension, findings suggest the AAR has been a race-neutral tool, which has implications in terms of how we conceptualize structural barriers faced by Black children and youth-in-care. We identified gaps and potential practice dilemmas for child welfare workers when using AAR documentation procedures. Using Critical Race Theory and the United Nations human rights framework, we argue that the AAR can be a tool to identify, monitor, and challenge oppression for Black children and youth-in-care who experience a continual negotiation of racialization alongside being a foster child. The AAR recordings can be harmful if they are simply a collection of information on the key areas of a child’s life. Prioritizing the academic needs of Black children in care is critical to social work and aligns with the commitments of One Vision, One Voice, Ontario’s Anti-Racism Strategic Plan as well as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, particularly in relation to the right to education.

Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children With SMA Receiving Nusinersen: What Is Missed and What Is Gained?

Nusinersen is the first oligonucleotide-based drug that is approved for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy. In January 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic and nusinersen-provider centers had to postpone planned infusions for some children along with other related interventions. Considering the important contribution that the intrathecal infusions and other support activities could have on the quality of life of spinal muscular atrophy patients and their families, this emergency could have a relevant impact on the course of the pathology. The present work aims to assess the clinical and social issues that arise for spinal muscular atrophy children in care at the referral pediatric palliative care Centre of Padua (Veneto) from a delay in nusinersen infusions, resulting from the contingent COVID-19 restrictions. This evaluation has been carried out in both the short and long term after the first lockdown period and can be considered as a “proxy” of a situation of a possible delay in administration or management of infusions, due to other different causes.

Anti-Black Racism In Child Welfare

<div>Black children are over-represented in Toronto’s Children’s Aid Society (CAS). A variety of academic of literature points to racism, specifically anti-Black racism, as the reason for</div><div>such high rates of apprehension of Black children. Indeed the Government of Ontario (2017) found the need for training on anti-Black racism to combat structural oppression. While the literature acknowledges that anti-Black racism is a major contributing factor to the overrepresentation of Black children in-care, there is a gap present about how, or if conversations about anti-Black racism are occurring within CAS. This study highlights the voices of three self-identified critical frontline workers at CAS to better understand how and if conversations about anti-Black racism occur, as well as what kinds of barriers may exist to having such conversations within CAS.</div>

Anti-Black Racism In Child Welfare

<div>Black children are over-represented in Toronto’s Children’s Aid Society (CAS). A variety of academic of literature points to racism, specifically anti-Black racism, as the reason for</div><div>such high rates of apprehension of Black children. Indeed the Government of Ontario (2017) found the need for training on anti-Black racism to combat structural oppression. While the literature acknowledges that anti-Black racism is a major contributing factor to the overrepresentation of Black children in-care, there is a gap present about how, or if conversations about anti-Black racism are occurring within CAS. This study highlights the voices of three self-identified critical frontline workers at CAS to better understand how and if conversations about anti-Black racism occur, as well as what kinds of barriers may exist to having such conversations within CAS.</div>