Elaine Farmer – författare

The quality of the assessment of children in need has a significant impact on outcomes for the children concerned. Good assessment contributes to better outcomes, but poor assessment can have tragic consequences. Understanding what makes a good assessment is vital.This book brings together findings from 10 years of UK research that shed light on different aspects of child and family assessment, and examines the evidence for what works in promoting the best outcomes for children. It covers thresholds for assessment and intervention, what information should be collected in assessments, and assessments in different contexts. It also examines key aspects of practice and the factors that can help or hinder good quality assessment. These areas include analysis, critical thinking and reflection; engaging with children and families; and inter-professional working. Structural, procedural and organisational factors are also considered.In summarising the research, this important book provides key messages on the links between assessment and outcomes for children, and offers implications for policy and practice. It will be essential reading for social work practitioners, academics, students and researchers, and all those in the child protection field.

Parents who neglect children present considerable challenges to child welfare professionals, and are often resistant to change. This book addresses an urgent need to ensure that social care interventions provide better long term outcomes for neglected children across services. Based on a substantial research study into social care provision for children, it provides a rare insight into the experiences of neglected children over a period of five years, examining the responsiveness of parents and children to social care support and their progress. Close-focus study of the decisions made on either side of services - by the children, the parents, the caregivers and related social and healthcare professionals - shows what works and what doesn't, in the long term. This important book highlights gaps in provision for neglected children after the initial referral stage, the risks and potential for professional interventions and how well the child protection system and the courts protect children. It suggests ways that local authorities and other professionals can meet the complex needs of the children most likely to fall through the safety net, the factors related to good outcomes for them and how to improve safeguarding strategies within and beyond children's services. Providing a critical account of policy, systems and practice, this book is essential reading for anyone who needs the latest evidence about safeguarding children, including policymakers, social workers and professionals in health care and the family justice system.

Adolescents are the hardest group to foster and have high rates of placement breakdown. Elaine Farmer and her colleagues examine what helps to make their placements work. Key issues for this age group are explored, including peer relationships, sexual health and relationships, the impact of the adolescent on the foster family and balancing their need for safety and autonomy.Based on government-commissioned research and part of the Supporting Parents initiative, this book addresses each stage of the care process, from placement selection to leaving foster care. The authors consider which kinds of professional support at which stages make a difference, the foster carer parenting skills that are crucial and how foster carers can draw on professional support to manage adolescents' behaviour, maintain their educational attainments and negotiate ongoing contact with their birth parents. They draw out recommendations for policy and practice in the areas of:how strain on carers can be reducedthe role foster carers' own children play in placement success or breakdownsingle foster carershow to contain the young people who are hardest to fosterkey training requirements for foster carersmanaging contacthow foster carers and social workers respond to gender differences in teenagers.A rich source of recommendations for social workers, policy makers and carers, this book will be invaluable to anyone involved in the fields of child welfare and child protection.

Children are frequently cared for by relatives and friends when parents, for whatever reason, are unable to care for their children themselves. Yet there has been very little information about how well children do when placed with kin or how safe they are in these placements.This book compares formal kinship care to traditional foster placements in order to ascertain which children are placed with kin, in what circumstances, how well such children progress, and how often these placements disrupt. The authors explore whether children placed with family and friends fare better or worse than other foster children, what services are provided and needed, and how kin care is experienced by carers, children and social workers.This book will be essential reading for social workers, policy makers, students and all those working with looked-after children, and will enable local authorities to make informed decisions about where best to place children and the support needed by family and friend carers.

The quality of the assessment of children in need has a significant impact on outcomes for the children concerned. Good assessment contributes to better outcomes, but poor assessment can have tragic consequences. Understanding what makes a good assessment is vital.This book brings together findings from 10 years of UK research that shed light on different aspects of child and family assessment, and examines the evidence for what works in promoting the best outcomes for children. It covers thresholds for assessment and intervention, what information should be collected in assessments, and assessments in different contexts. It also examines key aspects of practice and the factors that can help or hinder good quality assessment. These areas include analysis, critical thinking and reflection; engaging with children and families; and inter-professional working. Structural, procedural and organisational factors are also considered.In summarising the research, this important book provides key messages on the links between assessment and outcomes for children, and offers implications for policy and practice. It will be essential reading for social work practitioners, academics, students and researchers, and all those in the child protection field.

Parents who neglect children present considerable challenges to child welfare professionals, and are often resistant to change. This book addresses an urgent need to ensure that social care interventions provide better long term outcomes for neglected children across services. Based on a substantial research study into social care provision for children, it provides a rare insight into the experiences of neglected children over a period of five years, examining the responsiveness of parents and children to social care support and their progress. Close-focus study of the decisions made on either side of services - by the children, the parents, the caregivers and related social and healthcare professionals - shows what works and what doesn't, in the long term. This important book highlights gaps in provision for neglected children after the initial referral stage, the risks and potential for professional interventions and how well the child protection system and the courts protect children. It suggests ways that local authorities and other professionals can meet the complex needs of the children most likely to fall through the safety net, the factors related to good outcomes for them and how to improve safeguarding strategies within and beyond children's services. Providing a critical account of policy, systems and practice, this book is essential reading for anyone who needs the latest evidence about safeguarding children, including policymakers, social workers and professionals in health care and the family justice system.

"Hilarious, poignant, witty and wise Letters from Lockdown: Friendship Going Viral takes you not only inside the brilliant and quirky mind of Elaine Farmer, but also on a journey around the world. Farmer draws on her rich and varied experience to offer her reader a smorgasbord of insights into love and friendship, family, diplomacy, theology, psychology, hospitality, travel, sickness and death, all suffused with joy and more than a touch of defiance. These are letters youve always wished someone would write to you, and now she has! They might even inspire you to write some of your own." -- Hugh Mackay, Psychologist and Social Researcher. "Elaine Farmers letters to her friends have put relaxed sparkle into their lives during these COVID months. Then someone rightly decided they deserved a wider audience. An Anglican priest married to a diplomat (which is as uncommon as it sounds), Farmers insights based on her life in Australia and abroad demonstrate a charitable humour and a robust worldliness. Showing an understanding of the vicissitudes of life and non- judgemental, they also illustrate why she is a good priest." -- John McCarthy AO, Retired Australian Ambassador. "Always interesting and often nostalgic, these weekly letters have become welcome companions on the uncharted journey of 2020. In beautiful prose, and with deep spirituality and a generous heart, Elaine explores universal themes of friendship, hospitality and relationship, giving the letters a wider appeal than their original audience. Thought- provoking reflection is nicely balanced with humour and whimsy." -- Bishop Sarah Macneil. "One good thing can be said for a pandemic: gifted writers may use this time to produce new works in the shadow of death. From Boccaccios Decameron to Shakespeares sonnets to Defoes Journal of a Plague Year, writers have transformed their experiences of quarantine into storytelling of the highest quality. The Reverend Elaine Farmers take on this tradition, Letters from Lockdown: Friendship Going Viral, is an intimate and often droll account of her days and nights in Canberra and abroad. In her reflections on her childhood, her children, her foreign postings as a diplomats wife, and her calling to the Anglican ministry, Elaine offers a praise-song to friendship and love -- the gifts we most need in this complicated time." -- Christopher Merrill, Director, International Writing Program, The University of Iowa, and author of Self-Portrait with Dogwood.

"Hilarious, poignant, witty and wise Letters from Lockdown: Friendship Going Viral takes you not only inside the brilliant and quirky mind of Elaine Farmer, but also on a journey around the world. Farmer draws on her rich and varied experience to offer her reader a smorgasbord of insights into love and friendship, family, diplomacy, theology, psychology, hospitality, travel, sickness and death, all suffused with joy and more than a touch of defiance. These are letters youve always wished someone would write to you, and now she has! They might even inspire you to write some of your own." -- Hugh Mackay, Psychologist and Social Researcher. "Elaine Farmers letters to her friends have put relaxed sparkle into their lives during these COVID months. Then someone rightly decided they deserved a wider audience. An Anglican priest married to a diplomat (which is as uncommon as it sounds), Farmers insights based on her life in Australia and abroad demonstrate a charitable humour and a robust worldliness. Showing an understanding of the vicissitudes of life and non- judgemental, they also illustrate why she is a good priest." -- John McCarthy AO, Retired Australian Ambassador. "Always interesting and often nostalgic, these weekly letters have become welcome companions on the uncharted journey of 2020. In beautiful prose, and with deep spirituality and a generous heart, Elaine explores universal themes of friendship, hospitality and relationship, giving the letters a wider appeal than their original audience. Thought- provoking reflection is nicely balanced with humour and whimsy." -- Bishop Sarah Macneil. "One good thing can be said for a pandemic: gifted writers may use this time to produce new works in the shadow of death. From Boccaccios Decameron to Shakespeares sonnets to Defoes Journal of a Plague Year, writers have transformed their experiences of quarantine into storytelling of the highest quality. The Reverend Elaine Farmers take on this tradition, Letters from Lockdown: Friendship Going Viral, is an intimate and often droll account of her days and nights in Canberra and abroad. In her reflections on her childhood, her children, her foreign postings as a diplomats wife, and her calling to the Anglican ministry, Elaine offers a praise-song to friendship and love -- the gifts we most need in this complicated time." -- Christopher Merrill, Director, International Writing Program, The University of Iowa, and author of Self-Portrait with Dogwood.

Adolescents are the hardest group to foster and have high rates of placement breakdown. Elaine Farmer and her colleagues examine what helps to make their placements work. Key issues for this age group are explored, including peer relationships, sexual health and relationships, the impact of the adolescent on the foster family and balancing their need for safety and autonomy.Based on government-commissioned research and part of the Supporting Parents initiative, this book addresses each stage of the care process, from placement selection to leaving foster care. The authors consider which kinds of professional support at which stages make a difference, the foster carer parenting skills that are crucial and how foster carers can draw on professional support to manage adolescents' behaviour, maintain their educational attainments and negotiate ongoing contact with their birth parents. They draw out recommendations for policy and practice in the areas of:how strain on carers can be reducedthe role foster carers' own children play in placement success or breakdownsingle foster carershow to contain the young people who are hardest to fosterkey training requirements for foster carersmanaging contacthow foster carers and social workers respond to gender differences in teenagers.A rich source of recommendations for social workers, policy makers and carers, this book will be invaluable to anyone involved in the fields of child welfare and child protection.