Support Care: New Directions in Family Placement

This detailed tour of Support Care evidences how it can be central to preventative work with children and families: what it is, how it works, who benefits and why the Government is currently looking to encourage the establishment of its principles and practice throughout the UK. Supplemented by an overview of the policy and legislative context and a concluding report on a research study, each chapter details schemes developed and run in five local authorities. Some are called Neighbourhood Care, Part-time Fostering or Short Breaks rather than Support Care. But the 'stories' about the development and realisation of these schemes - told by parents, carers, practitioners - all describe how a 'lifeline' at a difficult time for a family can prevent a family breakdown, which might result in children being separated from their families.

Helen Cosis Brown is a Principal Lecturer in Social Work at Middlesex University. She also works as an independent foster carer reviewing officer and currently chairs a local authority fostering panel. She worked as a social worker and a social work manager in inner London before moving into social work education. Her publications focus on fostering and adoption and social work with lesbians and gay men.