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Attachment Handbook for Foster Care and Adoption
Gillian Schofield and Mary Beek,
BAAF
ISBN: 1903699967, £24.95

STAR RATING: 4/5

You know you are in safe hands here – Schofield and Beek are experienced practitioners and researchers who have published extensively in this area, writes Clea Barry.

Their central idea is that understanding the meaning and feeling behind children’s behaviour is key to supporting placements. They describe five elements of parenting that combine to offer children a secure base from which to explore the world and suggest these as a basis for assessing children, carers and the relationships between them.

This was sometimes heavy going, particularly the first chapters which summarise a great deal of research and theory, much of it already familiar. But overall, excellent.

Clea Barry is an adoption social worker, London Borough of Hackney