Assessing Adoptive and Foster Parents

Book excerpt: Assessing prospective adoptive and foster parents is an extremely complex task, and one that happens within a pressurised time frame. Currently, assessments draw substantially on interviews with prospective adopters and foster carers. Too often, they generate a lot of information but lack meaningful analysis and understanding of parenting capacity. Children with histories of trauma, loss and hurt need to join families in which parents exhibit the ability to be good at relationships, able to manage their own stress and bond with the child in their care. In this book, leading experts including Dan Hughes, Jonathan Baylin, Kim Golding and Julie Selwyn combine the latest findings from neuroscience with research on what makes good assessments. Together, they provide guidance and recommend tools for making thorough, analytical and effective assessments which will ensure the best possible chance of placement success. Assessing Adoptive and Foster Parents is an invaluable source of knowledge and practice guidance for social workers undertaking assessments of parenting capacity of children who have experienced neglect or trauma.