Birth parents’ perceptions of professional practice in child care and adoption proceedings: implications for practice

Smeeton, JK; Boxall, K

Abstract

This paper explores non-relinquishing birth parents’ experiences of contested child care and adoption proceedings. It highlights the perceptions and voices of birth parents which are rarely prioritised in dominant discourses of professional practice in this area. The paper reviews previous related research and also discusses a small scale empirical study which elicited the perspectives of three birth parents whose children had been made subject to care proceedings and placed for adoption in England. Drawing on previous research and this study, the paper makes range of practice recommendations for sensitive professional practice with birth parents during contested child care and adoption proceedings.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 1, 2011
• Publication Date: Mar 18, 2011
• Deposit Date: Feb 1, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 5, 2016
• Journal: Child & Family Social Work
• Print ISSN: 1356-7500
• Electronic ISSN: 1365-2206
• Publisher: Wiley
• Volume: 16
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 444-453
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2206.2011.00759.x
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2206.2011.00759.x
• Related Public URLs: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2206