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Background: This study aimed to adapt and validate a staff version of the PLANEA Independent Life Skills Assessment tools, which were then used to explore the convergence between self-reported and staff views of independent living skills of young people in residential child care in Spain. Method: A sample of 422 care-experienced young people was evaluated by their residential or care workers (n = 219) using the staff version of PLANEA instruments. Psychometric analyses were carried out to study dimensionality and measuring properties of the instruments, while t-tests, Pearson correlations and Fisher’s z were used to study convergence between informants. Results: The results show that the internal structure of the instruments was confirmed for the staff versions (three first-order factors and one second-order factor model for PLANEA-S, unidimensional model for PLANEA-9-S, and two-factor correlated model for PLANEA-T-S). The instruments showed excellent reliability (ω = .80-.97) and discriminative capacity. Staff showed less optimistic views than young people about their independent living skills but not their autonomy to perform everyday life tasks. This was mediated by the role of the adult respondent towards the young person evaluated. Conclusions: As conclusions we can say that the validated staff version of the PLANEA Independent Life Skills Assessment tools expands the scope for assessing this construct in young people in care from a multi-informant perspective. This is key for child protection services to address young people’s individual needs and inform decision-making regarding the provision of support services that will promote a successful transition from care to adulthood for them.

Residential care (RC) in Portugal accounts for almost 90% of out-of-home placements of children. Since the Youth Self-Report (YSR) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) are the most commonly used psychological (mal)adjustment screening instruments, it is important to analyze their comparative validity specifically in the context of RC. This study aims to analyze the comparative effectiveness of YSR/SDQ as screening tools of psychological (mal)adjustment, looking for differences in the way psychological problems and difficulties are identified by these two measures in adolescents in RC. Sixty-one adolescents, aged 12–20, living in five RC settings participated in this study. Participants’ characteristics at the time of admission were collected using the previous request for infomation (PIP) from the Portuguese Comprehensive Assessment System for Residential Care Quality (ARQUA-P). Participants filled out both the YSR and the self-report form of SDQ. Significant correlations between the two self-report measures of adolescents’ psychological adjustment were observed. Additionally, the utility of each measure differed based on youngsters’ characteristics, potentially supporting the simultaneous use of both instruments. Implications for further research and professional practice in RC are discussed, namely the differential utility of using YSR and/or SDQ as a screening tool with this population.

espanolEn este articulo se revisa la situacion de los psicologos y su papel en la intervencion social en el sector de familia e infancia. Para ello se repasaran algunos de los momentos clave para la incorporacion de estos profesionales, tanto en el nivel comunitario, de competencia municipal, como en el desarrollo de los servicios especializados autonomicos como el acogimiento familiar, residencial o de adopcion. Se hara particular enfasis en lo que ha supuesto la reforma realizada en julio de 2015 de la Ley Organica 1/96 de Proteccion Juridica del Menor, que plantea muy importantes retos al trabajo de los equipos interdisciplinares caracteristicos de este sector. Se comentaran sus implicaciones para los psicologos del nivel comunitario al abordar situaciones de riesgo, asi como los cambios en el nivel especializado referentes a novedades como los centros especificos para problemas de conducta, la necesidad de usar el acogimiento familiar con los ninos mas pequenos o la posibilidad de realizar adopciones abiertas EnglishIn this article we review the situation of psychologists and their role in social intervention in the child and family sector. In order to do this, some of the key moments for the incorporation of these professionals will be reviewed, both at the community level, in charge of the municipal authority, and the specialized regional services such as foster care, residential care or adoption. Particular emphasis will be placed on the reform implemented in July 2015 of Organic Law 1/96 on the Legal Protection of Minors, which poses very significant challenges to the work of the interdisciplinary teams that are typical of this sector. The implications for psychologists at the community level will be discussed when addressing risk situations, as well as changes at the specialized level referring to novelties such as therapeutic residential care for behavioral problems, the need to use family foster care with younger children, or the possibility of carrying out open adoptions

The author Carla González García holds a pre-doctoral scholarship from the National Program of Training for Improving Talent and employability in the frame-work of the National Plan of Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2013-2016 and co-financed by the European Social Fund (BES-2016-078139).The author Alba Águila holds a pre-doctoral scholarship from the Severo Ochoa Program for training in research and teaching in Principality of Asturias ( BP160 61).This research has been supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) of Spain through the National Plan of I+D+i (PSI2012-33185)

none 32 si The International Work Group for Therapeutic Residential Care convened an International Summit on ‘Pathways to Evidence-Based Practice’ at Loughborough University (GBR), Centre for Child and Family Research on 27-29 April, 2016 with generous support from the Sir Halley Stewart Trust and in partnership with The European Scientific Association on Residential and Family Care for Children and Adolescents (NLD) (EUSARF), the International Association for Outcome-Based Evaluation and Research on Family and Children’s Services (ITA) (IAOBER) and the Association of Children’s Residential Centers (USA) and with the additional support of Action for Children (GBR) and the National Implementation Service (NIS) (GBR). Membership includes: Lisa Holmes (Chair), Director, Centre for Child and Family Research, Loughborough University (GBR); James K. Whittaker (Co-Chair), Charles O. Cressey Endowed Professor Emeritus, University of Washington, School of Social Work, Seattle (USA); Jorge Fernandez del Valle, Professor of Psychology and Director, Child and Family Research Group, University of Oviedo (ESP); Frank Ainsworth, Senior Principal Research Fellow (Adjunct), James Cook University, School of Social Work and Human Services, Townsville, Queensland (AUS); Tore Andreassen, Psychologist, The Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (NOR); James P. Anglin, Professor, Faculty of the School of Child and Youth Care, University of Victoria (CAN); Christopher Bellonci, Board-Certified Child/Adolescent and Adult Psychiatrist; Associate Professor, Psychiatry Department, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA (USA); David Berridge, Professor of Child and Family Welfare, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol (GBR); Amaia Bravo, Lecturer, Department of Psychology, University of Oviedo (ESP); Cinzia Canali, Senior Researcher, Fondazione Emanuela Zancan, Padova (ITA) and President, International Association of Outcome-Based Evaluation and Research in Family and Children’s Services (IAOBER); Mark Courtney, Professor, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago (USA); Laurah Currey, Chief Operating Officer, Pressley Ridge, Pittsburgh, PA (USA) and President, Association for Children’s Residential Centers, (USA); Daniel. L. Daly, Executive Vice President and Director of Youth Care, Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home, Boys Town, NE (USA); Robbie Gilligan, Professor of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin IRE), Hans Grietens, Professor, Centre for Special Needs Education & Youth Care, University of Groningen (NLD) and President, European Scientific Association on Residential and Family Care for Children and Adolescents (EUSARF); Annemiek T. Harder, Assistant professor, Department of Special Needs Education and Youth Care, University of Groningen (NLD); Martha J. Holden, Senior Extension Associate with the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research and the Principal Investigator and Director of the Residential Child Care Project at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (USA); Sigrid James, Professor, Department of Social Work & Social Ecology, School of Behavioral Health, Loma Linda University, CA (USA); Andrew Kendrick, Professor of Residential Child Care, School of Social Work and Social Policy at the University of Strathclyde (GBR) and Consultant at the Centre of Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland (CELCIS) and the Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice (CYCJ) (UK); Erik J. Knorth, Professor, Department of Special Needs Education and Youth Care, University of Groningen (NLD); Mette Lausten, Senior Researcher at SFI - The Danish National Centre for Social Research, Copenhagen (DNK), John S. Lyons, Senior Policy Fellow at Chapin Hall, University of Chicago, IL (USA); Eduardo Martin, Lecturer at the Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of La Laguna, Tenerife (ESP); Samantha McDermid, Research Fellow, Centre for Child and Family Research, Loughborough University (GBR); Patricia McNamara, Senior Fellow (Honorary), Department of Social Work, University of Melbourne (AUS); Laura Palareti, Assistant Professor in Social Psychology, Department of Education Studies, University of Bologna (ITA); Susan Ramsey, Parent and Former Children’s Mental Health Advocate, The Walker School, Needham, MA (USA); Kari M. Sisson, Executive Director, Association of Children’s Residential Centers (USA); Richard W. Small, Walker Executive Director Emeritus, The Walker School, Needham, MA (USA); June Thoburn, Emeritus Professor of Social Work, University of East Anglia (GBR); Ronald Thompson, Senior Director, Boys Town National Research Institute for Child and Family Studies, Boys Town, NE (USA); Anat Zeira, Professor, School of Social Work and Social Welfare, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Head of Research and Evaluation at the Haruv Institute (ISR). Our work group wishes to thank CFRC staffer Laura Dale at Loughborough for extraordinary efforts in producing this statement in record time and for her care and assistance with all phases of our Summit activity. Whittaker, James K; Holmes, Lisa; del Valle, Jorge F.; Ainsworth, Frank; Andreassen, Tore; Anglin, James; Bellonci, Christopher; Berridge, David; Bravo, Amaia; Canali, Cinzia; Courtney, Mark; Currey, Laurah; Daly, Daniel; Gilligan, Robbie; Grietens, Hans; Harder, Annemiek; Holden, Martha; James, Sigrid; Kendrick, Andrew; Knorth, Erik; Lausten, Mette; Lyons, John; Martin, Eduardo; Mcdermid, Samantha; Mcnamara, Patricia; Palareti, Laura; Ramsey, Susan; Sisson, Kari; Small, Richard; Thoburn, June; Thompson, Ronald; Zeira, Anat Whittaker, James K; Holmes, Lisa; del Valle, Jorge F.; Ainsworth, Frank; Andreassen, Tore; Anglin, James; Bellonci, Christopher; Berridge, David; Bravo, Amaia; Canali, Cinzia; Courtney, Mark; Currey, Laurah; Daly, Daniel; Gilligan, Robbie; Grietens, Hans; Harder, Annemiek; Holden, Martha; James, Sigrid; Kendrick, Andrew; Knorth, Erik; Lausten, Mette; Lyons, John; Martin, Eduardo; Mcdermid, Samantha; Mcnamara, Patricia; Palareti, Laura; Ramsey, Susan; Sisson, Kari; Small, Richard; Thoburn, June; Thompson, Ronald; Zeira, Anat

The authors carried out an assessment of social support networks with a sample of 884 Spanish adolescents aged 12 to 17. The main goal was to analyze the development of the figures of parents and peers as providers of social support in the two basic dimensions of emotional and instrumental support. In peers, they distinguished between the contexts from which they came (school, associations, and friends from the community) to observe whether there were different tendencies. The results of the MANOVA indicate significant effects on both dimensions for the factors age, provider, and interaction between the two. The authors conclude that the tendencies for decline in the provision of support from parents and the corresponding increase in support from peers during adolescence are different for each dimension, and also for the different types of friends, according to context. Parents maintain a good level of instrumental support, but not of emotional support. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

There is an international consensus about the need to avoid prolonged stays in residential care and a preference for family-based interventions for those children who have been separated from their families. Nevertheless, Spanish statistics show a high number of children entering residential placements and little development of non-kinship family foster programmes. This article analyses the factors which influence the intensive use of residential placements and the reasons which lead to many children spending long periods of their lives in residential facilities. These questions are investigated through a study of 238 children aged twelve and under in residential foster-care, who had spent at least a third of their lives in that situation. The case information was obtained through collaboration with social workers who supplied data about the profile of the children, their families, their care histories and prospective outcomes. Certain characteristics of the children (age, physical and psychological problems) and the family of origin (serious psycho-social problems) seem to explain the long stays of these children in residential care. The article concludes with a discussion of the practical implications these results have for the improvement of child protection systems' response to these challenges.

Families have a major role in bringing up children and addressing their needs from birth to adult independence. Children, particularly the youngest ones, are the most vulnerable group in our society due to their dependency on adults just to survive. Therefore, it is not surprising that in the case of serious problems in the family context children become the most immediate and frequent victims. The lack of autonomy and ability to protect themselves from adversity, especially from child abuse and neglect, makes them dependent on public authority interventions to be protected and safe. Child welfare and child protection services emerged in the second half of the 20 century and they have become one of the major indicators of a contry’s development. The role of public authorities in recent decades has advanced toward the concept of “state care”. The term state care refers to a situation in which governments or local authorities take responsibility for looking after dependent children, who lack a family to meet the functions of upbringing and protection. The state thus becomes their guardian, in loco parentis. Although the state can fulfil this mission from a legal point of view and serve as the entity which assumes responsibility for the children, provides resources, and supervises their upbringing, the fact is that there is a need to place him or her in a context which substitutes that of the family to guarantee the child’s development, with specific people who ensure the necessary affective bonding and upbringing. Thus, two broad modalities emerge: residential care, where children are cared for in groups through residential programmes with paid staff or volunteers, and family foster care, when the children are taken in by a family which accepts responsibility for their care and upbringing. Within this second category we should distinguish between kinship care, in the case of relatives or persons who already have some kind of link to the child, and non-kinship care, for the case of persons with no previous relation to the child. Although the concept of state care could be extended to other types of cases in which the authorities intervene to protect children in their own family home, we can consider state care as out-of-home placement. In contrast to the case of residential care institutions, which presence dates back centuries, foster care arrived much later, accompanying a change in the concept of childhood, which came to be seen as a period of great worth to be protected and which should be devoted to learning, and free of the obligations of adult life. This idea of protected childhood, particularly within the most intimate and nourishing context of the family, extended the ideal of a family upbringing, in a setting that was healthy and hygienic (as promoted by the early child protection legislators in Europe, who referred to the laws in terms of “hygiene”), and in which affective development was a valued feature. A milestone of particular importance was the Conference on the Care of Dependent Children, called by President Theodore Roosevelt at the White House in 1909, which concluded that “home life is the highest and finest product of civilization” (Ashby, 1997). Although for many years residential care continued to predominate, the idea of family foster care began to develop strongly in English-speaking countries as an ideal of providing a family for those lacking one, without the need to create institutional structures for such a simple and natural function. Nevertheless, the debate on the use of these measures is much more complex, since the situations of different countries throughout the world and their economic, political, and religious circumstances may determine the use of one alternative or another, over and above reasons related solely to the child’s developmental needs. In Africa, AIDS and civil war have left behind thousands of orphans, for whom solutions based purely on family foster care could hardly provide sufficient coverage. On the other hand, in countries with advanced welfare states there should be no excuse for trying to place children in foster care and to reduce residential care to an indispensable minimum. This is what has occurred most visibly in Anglophone countries and in the north and west-centre of Europe (though to a lesser extent). However, in the south of Europe large numbers of children remain in residential care, despite substantial efforts to reduce those numbers. This special issue, Out of home care in child protection: An international review, attempts to make an overview of the state of the art of child protection in a wide variety of countries with special attention to out-of-home care placements, such as residential care and family foster care. The main aim of this special issue is to make an international comparison of important historical background, legal framework, current figures, research trends, and key challenges for the future in a sample of countries representing the most *e-mail: jvalle@uniovi.es