Care and control of ‘looked after’ children in England

Abstract

The central issue explored in this paper is that of appropriate care and control of 'looked after' children in England. The paper will draw upon two research projects (Gorin, 1997; Hayden, 1997a) in the same area of England, which includes two urban unitary authorities and a predominantly rural authority. These projects include data collected during 1996-1997 from over 30 children’s residential units, over 350 foster carers and over 200 children who foster, in the same authorities. The data collected in these studies is wide ranging. The evidence in this paper concentrates on one central area of the enquiry; the behaviour of looked after children and how this is managed (or not) by their carers, as well as an analysis of some of the key issues which may help in explaining and targeting responses to this behaviour. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of the research findings.