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Outcomes of adoption from public care: research and practice issues

Alan Rushton is head of the Social Work and Social Care Section at the Institute of Psychiatry (Health Services and Population Research Department, PO32, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK. Email: a.rushton{at}iop.kcl.ac.uk) and has for many years been the programme leader of the MSc in Mental Health Social Work. His research interests include adoption and fostering, child maltreatment and social work education.

The article covers the state of play of adoption from local authority care in the UK and research into the factors influencing placement outcomes. The major contentious issues about placement are discussed in relation to competing opinions and available evidence. Ways of intervening in adoptive families in difficulty are considered, together with current efforts to establish what makes for effective support services. This article recommends comprehensive assessments of the children to be placed and carefully targeted adoption-aware psychosocial interventions.