爆料王

Along with the benefits of these changes come complex challenges.听

鈥淚t鈥檚 complicated because people are complicated,鈥� said Amy Conley Wright, Associate聽Professor of Social聽Work and Policy Studies at the 爆料王, in an interview for the Sydney Social Sciences and Humanities Advanced Research Centre (厂厂厂贬础搁颁).听

Wright is also director of the university鈥檚 government-funded Institute聽of Open聽Adoption Studies and new Research Centre for Children and Families, which were established to build evidence on the best interests of children in adoption and other permanent聽care.听

Barnados聽Australia, a charity that supports children, pioneered adoptions from out-of-home care in the 1980s and made them open from the beginning. Open adoption has been government policy since the 1990s to maintain contact between children and their birth parents.

鈥淭he motivation behind open adoption is to address the identity needs of the young person, their need to understand where they鈥檝e come from and have information about their origins and the reason for their adoption; to get that sense of comfort about who they are,鈥� she said.听

While adoption has declined steeply in Australia since its peak in the 1970s, the 2014 legislative change in NSW has seen some increase in children adopted by their foster parents. All forms of permanent care with relatives (kinship care) or guardianship with relatives or carers now have a legal requirement for visits with the child鈥檚 mother, father, siblings and other relatives.

More support for three-way relationships聽

NSW has the most children adopted from out-of-home care, 121 in 2018-2019, compared to about 20 in the rest of聽. NSW is also encouraging permanency through guardianship (a legal order to care for a child to age 18) and kinship care, a priority for the large proportion of Indigenous children. Since the reforms, which also aim to keep children with their birth family when possible, the numbers of children in care are declining, with NSW now having the lowest rate of entry of children into聽.

Wright said many mothers (and some fathers) and carers make the three-way relationship work well, but often children have been removed from their family due to concerns about abuse and neglect, usually related to parents鈥� mental health, drug use or domestic violence.

鈥淲e鈥檝e seen in our research that foster carers are concerned about adopting the children in their care because of the relationship they have to manage. So we鈥檙e saying, 鈥業f you want more adoptions and permanent care orders you have to offer more support for relationships鈥�.鈥澛�

In October 2019 Wright ran a one-day Huddle at the 爆料王 to workshop 鈥淭rauma-informed practices for children in out-of-home care鈥�, hosted by the Institute of Open Adoption Studies and SSSHARC.听

This was a prelude to Fostering Lifelong Connections for Children in Permanent聽Care.听This three-year project funded by the Australian Research Council involves people from government and nongovernment organisations in trials of practical strategies to build positive relationships. 聽

Wright chose SSSHARC鈥檚 Huddle format as an informal, interactive discussion group, which gathered about 25 experts in trauma and out-of-home care to help clarify ideas for the research project and act as ongoing advisors.听

Academics included Emeritus Professor , an expert in inter-generational healing and recovery in Aboriginal peoples. Professionals came from bodies including the NSW Department of Communities and Justice, Legal Aid, the Supreme Court and Children鈥檚 Court, the Australian Childhood Foundation, Barnardos Australia (a partner in the Institute) and NGO partners in the project.

Too much emphasis on ticking boxes

Iman Aziza, manager of the permanency support program for CareSouth in the Illawarra region, found it useful to hear so many points of view, especially from people with long experience. Others agreed with her that increasing administrative work can affect the quality of caseworkers鈥� time with clients. 鈥淲hile we are still expected to achieve the same outcomes, there is a strong emphasis on needing to 鈥榯ick a box鈥�,鈥� she said.听

There were also international visitors: from Queens College, Belfast shared the experience of Northern Ireland, which has a similar adoption history to Australia and a requirement for face-to-face contact for children adopted from foster care. Three academics from Taiwan University were interested in inter-country adoption, which does not legally require contact.听

鈥淲e were looking at directions for openness in inter-country adoption,鈥� said Wright, 鈥渨here you鈥檝e got different cultures and languages and histories, and different experiences around stigma in single motherhood and relinquishing a child for adoption. How do you bridge that for openness?鈥澛�

American-born Wright did her graduate studies and held positions at the University of California Berkeley and San Francisco State University before moving to Australia. She sees many parallels between the Australian and US systems but a 鈥渟tark difference鈥� is that US foster care is federally legislated and funded. There鈥檚 an emphasis on permanency throughout the country and adoption is more common than in Australia.听聽聽聽聽

At the heart of the Huddle was a discussion in small groups of case studies that represented the problems caseworkers encounter and how they could be improved.

For parents, Wright said, 鈥渋t鈥檚 very strange to re-encounter your child being parented by someone else, in a setting where you feel like people are watching you, and maybe you have had a history of mental health issues and substance abuse. It can stir up a lot of things for people.听

鈥淲e were trying to focus on how experiences of trauma are present in these relationships and can become re-triggered for children and families. We have heard from foster carers and people in the system that sometimes after children have these contact visits from their family their behaviours really change: they can become excessively clingy with their carer or they start to act out at school.鈥�

Agencies also need guidance on how to support contact visits, and the groups addressed the question of who in the complex system should be responsible for fixing problems. 鈥淪ometimes they鈥檒l point the finger at each other, when what is important is what is best for the child,鈥� Wright said.

鈥淏irth family contact鈥� is now 鈥渇amily time鈥�

Iman Aziza said her greatest concern was that 鈥渃arers who have been caring for the same children long-term often don鈥檛 see the benefits of maintaining a connection to the birth family鈥�. She learnt in discussion the 鈥渄isheartening statistic鈥� that many families and children saw each other only once a month for two or three hours.

A simple change of language at CareSouth has helped. 鈥淪upervised Contact Service鈥� has become 鈥淔amily Connections鈥� and 鈥渂irth family contact鈥� is now 鈥渇amily time鈥�. Aziza said: 鈥淭he new language helps carers to understand that spending time with families should not be a sterile, supervised environment but it鈥檚 about maintaining connections, especially for siblings who don鈥檛 reside in the same placement.鈥�

The Huddle produced documents summing up the questions and potential solutions. A visual notetaker created some striking records using text and cartoon images. They will be used in published and online resources, shared by the Fostering Lifelong Connections project with the out-of-home care sector.

Assessing the success of the permanency policy is 鈥渁 long-term question鈥�, Wright said. 鈥淵ou have to wait until they鈥檙e young adults and even older to understand how their trajectory is different from remaining long-term in out-of-home care.鈥澛�

As well as collecting data from the administrative system and court records, the Institute鈥檚 staff does qualitative research by talking to mothers and, where possible, fathers, foster and kinship carers, caseworkers, and children themselves.

Wright is working with academics in other disciplines such as Sociology and Economics, where research will look at how being in out-of-home care affects a person鈥檚 human capital, especially in school achievement and employment. 聽 聽 聽 聽聽

鈥淧ermanency reforms, including open adoption, represent a significant and far-reaching intervention into people鈥檚 lives,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his is new territory for Australia and the way it鈥檚 done is different from other countries. We need to build up this evidence base to understand what's happening.鈥�

The Huddle on 鈥淭rauma-informed practices for children in out-of-home care鈥� was held on October 24, 2019 at Women鈥檚 College, the 爆料王. A Sydney Ideas forum on 聽was held on August 31, 2017.听