Understanding Looked After Children: An Introduction to Psychology for Foster Care

Understanding Looked After Children is an accessible guide to understanding the mental health needs of children in foster care and the role of foster carers and support networks in helping these children.

The authors provide foster carers with an insight into the psychological issues experienced by children in the care system, and the impact of these issues on the foster family. Chapters cover cultural, social and legal structures associated with foster care and both the relevant child psychology theory and examples drawn from real-life situations. The authors give advice on how to address common psychological issues in collaboration with multi-agency professionals, as well as how to access to statutory services. They also explain the possible impact of assessments on foster children and the causes and management of foster carers' own feelings of frustration, anger or disappointment with social and mental health services or the placement itself. Chapters are complemented by case studies, and the book includes a helpful glossary to common terminology.

Understanding Looked After Children is essential reading for registered foster carers and those considering fostering, as well as adoptive parents, and a useful reference for trainee and experienced practitioners in the care system, including social workers, psychologists, counsellors, teachers and others looking after vulnerable children.

Jeune Guishard-Pine OBE is a chartered psychologist with significant experience and specialism in child and family psychology. She is currently Consultant Psychologist and Director of Bespoke Psychology.

Lloyd Hamilton is a systemic psychotherapist and Team Manager of the Lewisham Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service looked after children team; part of the South London and Maudsley Foundation Trust. Lloyd is also a teacher and began working with diverse communities of young people in London schools in 1992.

Suzanne McCall is a counsellor at the Luton Family Consultation Clinic working with adolescents, parents and foster carers and also works from her own private practice. She was previously a qualified social worker with over ten years of experience working with children in care and children in need and at risk.