Treatment Foster Care for Improving Outcomes in Children and Young People

This article seeks to expand the conversation started in the primary article by Stephen Gay in this volume entitled ‘The Choice Between Adoption and Foster Care as Child Protection Responses’. It discusses the need for stability and permanence of care arrangements for children and young people living in out-of-home care in Part II before moving on in Part III to consider the option of widening the choice of care arrangements to better meet their needs. The importance of listening to the voices of children and young people and giving them a say in where they live and how they are cared for is also explored in Part IV.

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Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care for Adolescents in English care: randomised trial and observational cohort evaluation

The British Journal of Psychiatry ◽

10.1192/bjp.bp.113.131466 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 204 (3) ◽

pp. 214-221 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

J. M. Green ◽

N. Biehal ◽

C. Roberts ◽

J. Dixon ◽

C. Kay ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Foster Care ◽

Young People ◽

Usual Care ◽

Antisocial Behaviour ◽

Mean Difference ◽

Treatment Foster Care ◽

Observational Cohort ◽

Secondary Outcomes ◽

Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care ◽

Children In Care

BackgroundChildren in care often have poor outcomes. There is a lack of evaluative research into intervention options.AimsTo examine the efficacy of Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care for Adolescents (MTFC-A) compared with usual care for young people at risk in foster care in England.MethodA two-arm single (assessor) blinded randomised controlled trial (RCT) embedded within an observational quasi-experimental case–control study involving 219 young people aged 11–16 years (trial registration: ISRCTN 68038570). The primary outcome was the Child Global Assessment Scale (CGAS). Secondary outcomes were ratings of educational attendance, achievement and rate of offending.ResultsThe MTFC-A group showed a non-significant improvement in CGAS outcome in both the randomised cohort (n= 34, adjusted mean difference 1.3, 95% CI −7.1 to 9.7,P= 0.75) and in the trimmed observational cohort (n= 185, adjusted mean difference 0.95, 95% CI −2.38 to 4.29,P= 0.57). No significant effects were seen in secondary outcomes. There was a possible differential effect of the intervention according to antisocial behaviour.ConclusionsThere was no evidence that the use of MTFC-A resulted in better outcomes than usual care. The intervention may be more beneficial for young people with antisocial behaviour but less beneficial than usual treatment for those without.

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Social Work and the Education of Children in Foster Care

Adoption & Fostering ◽

10.1177/030857599301700307 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 17 (3) ◽

pp. 25-34 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Jane Aldgate ◽

Anthony Heath ◽

Matthew Colton ◽

Michael Simm

Keyword(s):

Social Work ◽

Foster Care ◽

Young People ◽

Social Workers ◽

Educational Needs ◽

Children And Young People ◽

Children In Foster Care

To what extent should social workers advocate the educational needs of children and young people in foster care? Jane Aldgate, Anthony Heath, Matthew Colton and Michael Simm present the findings of a recent study.

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Family Foster Care: Can it Survive the Evidence?

Children Australia ◽

10.1017/cha.2014.5 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 39 (2) ◽

pp. 87-92 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Frank Ainsworth ◽

Patricia Hansen

Keyword(s):

Foster Care ◽

Young People ◽

Media Coverage ◽

Children And Youth ◽

Children And Young People ◽

Number Of Children ◽

Family Foster Care ◽

South Wales ◽

The Unemployed ◽

Children In Care

The media coverage of foster care in Australia is replete with adoration for foster carers who look after disadvantaged and difficult children and youth. As this article is being written, New South Wales is holding a ‘foster care week’ with enhanced media coverage and praise for foster carers, the recruitment of new foster carers and acclaim for the ‘foster carer of the year’. Yet, there is another side to foster care that offers less than ideal circumstances for children in care. There is the worrying issue of multiple placements, the problem with children and young people running away from foster care before they reach the legal age for discharge, and evidence of increased incidence of poor educational attainment and involvement in juvenile offending for young people in foster care. In addition, there are cases of foster children being abused by foster carers. As adults, former foster-care children and youth are over-represented among the homeless, in adult correction centres, the unemployed and the users of mental health services. This article documents these negative outcomes of entering the foster-care system, and asks whether family (or non-relative) foster care can survive this evidence. For too many children and young people, family foster care may not provide better outcomes than less-than-optimal parental care from which the children were removed. An alternative is to reduce the use of family foster care and increase intensive support and parenting education services for birth parents who have limited parenting capacity. The aim should be to limit the number of children being taken into care.

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