Search

Summary of Proceedings at the Adoption Forum Conference Slieve Donard Hotel, Newcastle, 10-11 February 1998 There has been a growing concern during recent years in Northern Ireland about the arrangements for the long term care of children who are unlikely to return to their own families. These concerns have been addressed in different ways and at different times in other jurisdictions of the United Kingdom.

What is the rhetoric and what is the reality of child care in the 1990s? Donal Giltinan questions how young people are faring in Scotland under a system which, he argues, is structurally unjust, where social welfare is governed by market principles, and in which the justice system is outdated and flawed.

The development of specialist fostering in Britain was one of the childcare success stories of the 1980s. Malcolm Hill, Richard Nutter, Donal Giltinan, Joe Hudson and Burt Galaway report here the main findings of a comparative survey of specialist fostering undertaken in 1992, which provides an up-to-date picture of current trends.

Waiting for the actions of other people is an unsettling and frustrating experience. When one's whole life context may depend on what these others may do or do not do, then the waiting is charged with trepidation. Add to this a wait which is protracted and which no one seems inclined or able to end with a firm decision. Go further and imagine you are a child carrying these huge burdens … and you may gain some inkling of the feelings of children.