Invited Comment

✍ Scribed by Felicity Collier

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 64 KB
• Volume: 5
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0952-9136
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0852(199612)5:5<362::aid-car289>3.0.co;2-y

✦ Synopsis

British Agencies for Adoption & Fostering (BAAF) recognizes the importance of careful assessment, training and preparation for foster carers and adoptive parents. Clearly, media publicity has the potential to attract a wide range of people from different backgrounds and, as for any other sector of the population which expresses interest in offering homes for children, a proportion would be unsuitable and may represent a danger to the child. Proper research to identify the advantages and disadvantages of different forms of publicity would make a real contribution to this field, and the need for this is highlighted in Karen Irving's article. There is no doubt, however, that publicity has made it possible for many children to be placed in permanent families, children who would otherwise remain in temporary care situations. BAAF believes the assessment of carers is a skilled professional task and requires expertise and a high level of training for the workers involved and also the cooperation of other agencies.