Stability, Permanence, Outcomes and Support: Foster Care and Adoption Compared

Abstract

There are large numbers of children in the care system who are unable to return home and who need a stable permanent placement. Julie Selwyn and David Quinton report some of the findings of a Department of Health-funded study, which followed a complete sample of 130 older children, all of whom had had a best interest decision in favour of adoption as the chosen placement. In the event, not all the children were adopted, making it possible to compare the outcomes of children who were adopted with those who went into long-term foster placements. There were many similarities in the experience of offering an adoptive or foster home to the young people but some key differences were in the stability of placements, the amount of autonomy the adoptive parents/carers had and their views of how close they were to the child and their assessment of the child's closeness to them.