Purpose – Out‐of‐home care has been a subject for policy debate since child welfare policies were first developed. Too often the debate is marked by ill‐informed sound‐bites linking “care” with negative descriptors such as “drift” or “languish”. The purpose of this paper is...

Purpose – To investigate the application of the social enterprise model to the childcare sector in Scotland and develop a practical model for analysing such social enterprises. Design/methodology/approach – A review of the literature of ideas on social enterprise found in official and...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to describe the development of the 14-item reflective fostering fidelity rating (RFFR), an observational rating system to evaluate model fidelity of group facilitators in the Reflective Fostering Programme (RFP), a mentalisation-based psychoeducation...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to consider some possible reasons for the relatively high rate in Wales of children looked after by local authorities. Design/methodology/approach Selected potential explanations for Wales having higher rates were tested against aggregate data from published...

Purpose This paper aims to describe how a sense of normalcy for young people in foster care can be critical to their well-being. Design/methodology/approach This paper reports on policy and practice efforts in the USA to promote normalcy for youth in care. The authors review policy that promotes...

Purpose – Many children who are looked after by the state have experienced adverse and traumatic life circumstances prior to being removed from their biological parents. Previous research has highlighted that many of them experience barriers to accessing psychological therapies. The purpose of...

Purpose There is little evidence regarding how to best support the emotional well-being of children in foster care. This paper aims to present the evaluation of an adaptation of the reflective fostering programme, a group-based programme to support foster carers. This study aimed to explore...

Abstract When government agencies interact with nonprofit organizations they have various effects on the organization’s capacity. But, it is unclear how a particular agency’s environment-both internal (i. e. organizational culture) and external (i. e. resource dependency)-determines...

This article reports on the evaluation of a pilot project which tested the utility of a framework for the Assessment of Vulnerable Children and their Families in five health board (local authority) areas in the Republic of Ireland. The framework had been developed following a consultancy process...

Earlier Nordic comparative studies show variation between countries in child welfare practice, reflecting cultural differences, and that case workers share the norms, values and attitudes of their society. Can cultural factors be concretised for discussion? Child welfare workers in Denmark,...