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Parental substance misuse is a significant child welfare issue and associated with increased risk of child maltreatment. The aim of the present study was to understand what social care outcomes children who live with parental substance misuse have, and to assess factors associated with those social care outcomes over a two-year period. The paper reports on a retrospective longitudinal study of 299 children all living with parental substance misuse and referred to one local authority in England. Data were collected from children’s social work case files about procedural social care outcomes and factors which may be associated with those outcomes. Using cluster analysis, a new typology of children’s longitudinal trajectories through the children’s social care system was developed, consisting of five distinct types. Analysis indicated that some children received too little intervention from children’s social care despite ongoing concerns, while other children were potentially unnecessarily caught up in the children’s social care system. Factors associated with children having the poorest outcomes were: caregiver instability resulting from substance misuse, parenting capacity and, household instability. The study’s findings indicate that some children who live with parental substance misuse are at significant risk of harm, while others may be better supported through non-statutory services such as early help.

Parental substance misuse is a significant public health and children’s rights issue. In the UK, social workers frequently work with children and families affected by substance misuse. However, relatively little is known about this population, particularly at point of referral to social care. The paper reports on the largest known study of parental substance misuse as a feature of children’s social care work in England. This paper provides a cross-sectional profile of 299 children living with parental substance misuse and referred to children’s social care in one local authority in England. Data were collected from social work case files at the point of referral to social care about the child, family, the wider environment and parental substance misuse. The findings show that children affected by parental substance misuse frequently had other support needs relating to their wellbeing and mental health. Children were also likely to be experiencing other parental and environmental risk factors. The significant historical – and in some cases intergenerational – social care involvement for some families indicates potential issues with the capacity of services to meet needs. Recommendations for practice are discussed with a particular focus on the need for early, comprehensive support for children and families.

Parenting programmes are recommended as an effective means to support parents in promoting positive relationships with, and managing the behaviour of, their children. One barrier that impedes their successful implementation is that partners, especially fathers, are less frequently recruited by child welfare services. This article reports on a study that investigated how both parents were engaged with parenting services. Direct recordings were made of initial telephone conversations between six practitioners and 28 parents referred to those services and investigated for evidence of how the other parent was recruited. Conversation analysis was used to identify how participants introduced the possibility of both parents being included in the service; how these possibilities were negotiated and what eventual agreements were made for both parents to be included in future arrangements. Implications for practice, training and future research are considered.

This paper considers the importance of material objects for looked after and adopted children integrated as part of life story work practices. Conducting life story work is believed to be good practice within direct work with looked after children in England and there are a range of diverse practices, including life story books, later life letters and memory boxes. Through a creative design project developing a playful memory product for looked after children, we have had the opportunity to capture sector perspectives on life story work approaches and these are interspersed throughout this commentary. Combining multi-disciplinary theoretical perspectives and these sector insights, we explore how special material objects are important for children’s identity and continuity of sense of self. The paper highlights the importance of children telling their own stories of these objects, giving them agency and control over their life story narratives. In a context of austerity, life story work may not be prioritised by social workers who have many other competing demands and limited resources. We emphasise the need for professionals to recognise the value children give to objects and to provide them with opportunities to both keep these safe during placement moves and to tell their own story through their objects alongside more traditional, formal life story work. The recommendations have implications for children in out of home care in many country contexts, not just England where the research has been conducted.

Signs of Safety is a strengths-based approach to work with children and families where there are concerns about abuse or neglect. Signs of Safety is widely used in the UK and internationally, and there is a growing range of empirical research exploring its use within statutory children’s social work. However, there is little research exploring how, and to what effect, Signs of Safety is being used by other childcare professionals. This paper reports on an independent evaluation of the use of Signs of Safety by an ‘early help’ agency in the South West of England. At time of evaluation, the agency was commissioned by the local authority to support children and families with multiple and complex needs who did not meet the threshold for statutory children’s social care involvement. The study was multiple methods with two strands. To better understand the work that the agency did, data was collected from case files, to develop a profile of families engaging with the agency. Interviews were undertaken with five practitioners about their experiences of using Signs of Safety. Saliency analysis was used to explore the qualitative data. Overall practitioners felt that Signs of Safety was accessible, supported clear communication with children and families and aided critical reflection. However, existing tensions - relating to statutory threshold decisions and multi-agency relationships - were reflected and magnified via the Signs of Safety tools. Based on these findings, implications for practice are discussed, providing original insights about an issue highly relevant to national and international audiences.

This paper draws on an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Nurturing Attachments groupwork programme provided by AdoptionPlus for adoptive families in England. Twenty-nine adoptive families participated in a longitudinal quantitative study, completing questionnaires and validated measures before and after group attendance. The Nurturing Attachments programme, informed by Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (Hughes, Golding & Hudson, 2015), was developed to help foster and adoptive parents strengthen their relationships with the child and support children who had experienced developmental traumas. Most parents were caring for children who were late placed and who had complex and overlapping difficulties. Post training, parents reported increased confidence in their own parenting and statistically significant positive changes in self-efficacy and in their capacity for reflective functioning. However, unexpectedly, adoptive parents identified more children as having greater emotional and peer difficulties and fewer with symptoms of conduct disorders. This paper focuses on the relationship between perceptions of adopted children’s behaviour and parental reflective functioning and self-efficacy. It explores whether improved reflective functioning, particularly curiosity, led to a better understanding of their child’s behaviours and thus an increased recognition of emotional distress. Recommendations for supporting adoptive parents, including the importance of supporting parental reflective functioning, within a wrap-around package of support during childhood and adolescence are made.

Having a good understanding of one’s origins and history is known to be significant in identity development. Drawing on a large-scale online survey of looked after children’s subjective well-being, this paper demonstrates that a significant number of children and young people (age 4-18 years) did not fully understand the reasons for their entry to care. The paper explores the effect of this lack of knowledge on children’s well-being and on their feelings of being settled in their current placement. The study reiterates the need for professionals to be honest and open with children in out-of-home care and the need to specifically address, perhaps repeatedly, why a child is not living with their birth family.