Today we've got the adoption gap for children of parents with substance misuse problems; mental health services for care leavers and Ofsted's inspection of Cafcass in Staffordshire and the Marches
- New research commissioned by the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) has shown that 34 % of adopters would not consider a child whose mother misused drugs and/or alcohol during pregnancy opening up a potential "adoption gap". Other findings include: 42% of people would prefer do adopt a single child than a sibling group; 26% are unwilling to adopt a child over 5 years old; 48% are unwilling to adopt a child with behavioural problems; 38% would be unwilling to adopt a child with disabilities; 28% worry they could not love an adopted child as much as their own.
- Cafcass has had another "inadequate" rating by Ofsted, this time in its Staffordshire and Marches service area. However, the watchdog's report said that although work with children and young people was strong and in most cases there was effective advocacy for them, it was let down by the quality of case planning and recording. Most young people asked said their views made very little difference to the outcomes of their cases.
- More research, this time from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) on mental health services for care leavers. Apparently although voluntary services to support care leavers with mental health problems are effective in helping those with lower level needs, there is a lack of awareness of such services amongst care leavers and social workers. They've also got some good practice suggestions for those working in this area including embedding a mental health specialist in leaving care teams and improving access to counselling.
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