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BJSW Advance Access published online on August 15, 2005
British Journal of Social Work, doi:10.1093/bjsw/bch275
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved.

Article

The Search For Stability and Permanence: Modelling the Pathways of Long-stay Looked After Children

Gillian Schofield 1*, June Thoburn 2, Darren Howell 3, and Jonathan Dickens 4

1 Senior Lecturer in Psychosocial Sciences and Co-Director of the Centre
2 Professor of Social Work and former Director of the Centre
3 Senior Research Associate for the study reported in this paper
4 Lecturer in Social Work

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Gillian Schofield, E-mail: g.schofield{at}uea.ac.uk


  Abstract

This paper presents findings from a study of children looked after by 24 local authorities. It combines analysis of statistical data with analysis of qualitative and quantitative data from a questionnaire survey of a targeted sub-sample of children who had been looked after for 4 years or more. The paper highlights a complex picture of continuity and discontinuity in attempts to achieve stability and permanence in a range of birth family, foster care, adoption, residential and leaving care placements for long-stay children. Some long-stay children are moving smoothly and in a planned way towards a family for life, while some experience long periods in stable but temporary placements or have a number of moves prior to finding stability and a sense of belonging. A further group of children experience stability or moves while looked after, without having a family to belong to when they move into adult life. The paper discusses the difficulty with the Government’s current long-stay performance measure in capturing the difference between stability in placement and planned permanence for children and families.

Keywords: Looked after children, stability, permanence, performance.
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