Content area
Full Text
Articles
Background to the Study
There is a growing recognition of the need to listen to children and to provide them with opportunities to participate in decisions that are pertinent to their overall wellbeing. Theoretical underpinnings of this trend come from the frameworks of children's rights (Jans, 2008; United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), 1989) and from the sociology of childhood (Corsaro, 1997; Jenks, 1982), which view children as competent agents in their own life. This recognition, however, is often tokenistic and does not translate into practice (Quortrup, Bardy, Sgritta, & Wintersberger, 1994; Thomas & Thomas, 2005). An example of such limitation is the lack of involvement of the biological children of foster carers in the fostering decisions.
Foster care is a complex and demanding task, which requires dedication and patience not only from the primary carers, but the whole foster family (Walsh & Campbell, 2010). Yet, the important role that biological children play in the fostering team often goes unacknowledged and their opportunities to be involved in the decision-making processes during the fostering task are sparse. Their lack of voice and recognition has been well documented in international literature (Kaplan, 1988; Martin, 1993; Moslehuddin, 1999; Pugh, 1996; Sutton & Stack, 2013; Tadros, 2003; Thompson & McPherson, 2011; Twigg & Swan, 2003; Watson & Jones, 2002; Younes & Harp, 2007) for over two decades and more recently by some Australian studies (Clare, Clare, & Peaty, 2006; Noble-Carr, Farnham, & Dean, 2014; Nuske, 2005, 2010).
Despite overwhelming evidence highlighting the importance of recognising biological children's voices in the fostering process, and a range of recommendations made by Clare et al. in their 2006 WA report, little appears to have been done in WA at the level of policy and practice to address the issue. Although there is some evidence of useful strategies being recently introduced in the Australian Capital Territory (Noble-Carr et al., 2014), there is no available data demostrating that the need for support for biological children is adequately addressed in other Australian jurisdictions. The purpose of this project was to gather evidence regarding the levels of information and support required by biological children of foster carers in WA, and to use these findings to develop a range of practical...