Fostering and Adoption 367placements, ‘disrupt’ when the foster or adoptive parents come to feel
they cannot continue to look after the child. Research shows three factors
are important in determining disruption: (1) lack of carer confidence
about how to handle the child; (2) the presence of significant behaviour
problems; and (3) the extent to which the carers ‘click’ with the child,
that is, the extent to which the new parents feel the child is well matched
to them and is loveable. Children who were scapegoated more than their
siblings in their birth family are especially prone to disrupted placements.
Parent training programmes offer a logical approach to help foster and
adoptive carers since they have been shown to improve the two principal
causes of disruption: parental confidence in managing the child, and the
level of child behaviour problems.
Specific interventions
Behaviourally-based foster care trainings such as the programmeFostering
Changes (http://fosteringchanges.com) can improve the skill with which
foster carers and adoptive carers handle children, increase the stability of
the placements, and lead to greater satisfaction for the foster and adoptive
carers. There is a randomised controlled trial showing that this programme
is effective in increasing carer confidence and reducing child behaviour
problems.
It is particularly important to ensure that the child has adequate educa-
tion. A relatively high proportion of looked-after children are out of school
and not getting full-time schooling. When they are at school, the pressures
on schools to be ‘socially inclusive’ may mean that they are put into a
large class without special provision for the special teaching they need,
and their self-esteem suffers as a result. As well as addressing the child’s
deficits, it is crucial that strengths are encouraged, be these, for example,
prowess in sport, such as football, developing hobbies, such as interest in
animals, singing, or whatever else. Such strengths can take on a particular
importance when there is much less stability in the personal background
and relationships of a child.
For children and young people who have a succession of disrupted
placements because fosterers found them too challenging, specialist fos-
tering may be indicated. There are various forms of therapeutic foster
care. One of the best known, ‘Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care’,
involves paying a salary to foster carers who take on just one child as a full-
time job. The foster parents supervise the child very closely so they have
little chance to engage in damaging or antisocial activities such as drug
taking or unprotected sex. They are unremittingly encouraging about any
and all achievements and closely responsive to the young person – this is
likely to be in marked contrast to the negative feedback and criticism they
have mostly experienced. But because social approval is often less effective
in these young people (who have every reason to be mistrustful of adults),
practical rewards in the form of points are also given. These are exchanged