V. George - Foster Care: Theory and Practice

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FOSTER CARE

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THE SOCIOLOGY OF GENDER AND THE FAMILY

In 15 Volumes

First published in 1970 by

Routledge

Reprinted 1998, 2002

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Transferred to Digital Printing 2007

1970 V. George

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Foster Care

ISBN 0-415-17649-2

The Sociology of Gender and the Family: 15 Volumes

ISBN 0-415-17827-4

The International Library of Sociology: 274 Volumes

ISBN 0-415-17838-X

Publishers Note

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original may be apparent

THIS research would have been impossible without the co-operation of the childrens officers, the child care officers, and the administrative and clerical staff of the three childrens departments under study. I am very grateful to them for their helpful and friendly attitude to me during my stay in their departments. I am also grateful to those who answered the questionnaire on their role as foster parents.

I am indebted to two of my colleagues for their encouragement and help: to Professor D. C. Marsh who read the manuscript and made some helpful suggestions; and to Miss K. N. Hazel who discussed with me some of the research projects at their formative stage and who also read parts of the manuscript.

My wife, Enid, has contributed a great deal to the production of this work. She shared with me the laborious analysis of some of the research material. She made notes from a number of books and reports on the history of the boarding out system. She also typed and corrected the script. Above all, I am grateful for her encouragement and forbearance during the whole period of the research.

This research was designed to explore primarily the relationship between theory and practice in foster care. This was considered a worthwhile area for research in view of the mounting emphasis on professional training in child care and the greater influence which theoretical knowledge from psychology, sociology and social administration is said to exert on foster care practice today. At a very early stage in the planning of the research, however, it became obvious that some of the practices as well as some of the theoretical propositions could be understood only within the context of the historical development of foster care. Therefore an examination of the origin and development of the boarding-out system in England and Wales was also undertaken.

The literature on foster care in this country is still very scanty in spite of the progress it has made during the last twenty years. The American literature is more extensive and it has undoubtedly influenced both the theory and the practice of fostering in this country. It was therefore inevitable that the examination of the theory would cover both English and American literature. Occasional references are also made to some of the Australian and Canadian work in this field. Broadly speaking, the theory of foster care is based on a twofold foundation: first, the findings of empirical research whether in the field of foster care or in the broader fields of psychology, social administration or sociology; second, a body of assumptions which derive from the experience of individual social workers or from the accepted moral values in society.

Empirical research undertaken by individual researchers has the obvious limitation that it has to be confined in size so as to be manageable. This has affected the present research in three ways. First, the number of aspects in foster care that could be examined were limited to the recruitment and assessment of foster parents; the preplacement preparations made for foster parents and for foster children; the outcome of foster placements; and the role of foster parents. Second, only placements involving children who were not related to their foster parents were examined, because previous research had shown that different considerations apply to related foster parents. Third, the research was limited to a small number of local authority childrens departments. It was decided that the research should cover more than one childrens department in order to illustrate some of the variations found in the field and to provide a more representative picture than that which would have emerged from the examination of one department only. Four childrens departments were initially involved: two counties, one of average and one of small size, and two county boroughs, again one of average and the other of small size. Because of the extreme difficulties encountered in obtaining old case records in the county department of average size and the unexpected fear of its childrens officer that foster parents might object to being asked questions on their work, research had to be discontinued in that department. It was by then too late to negotiate with another childrens department and the research was therefore confined to the other three departments. They are referred to as Largetown, Smalltown and the County, mainly to make sure that the identity of the foster parents, foster children and natural parents involved is kept confidential. Moreover, the research was not intended to appraise the standard of social work of individual departments and therefore no good purpose would have been served by giving the names of the local authorities involved. Largetown has had a boarding-out rate above the national average; Smalltown below; and the County about the same as the national average.