Racial Matching in Fostering: The Challenge to Social Work Practice - Tapa dura

This book is essentially and ethnographic case study of one London borough's response to the changing ideas about the placement of black children in substitute family care away from the old colour-blind approach towards an acceptance of the importance of 'racial' and cultural identity and the desirability of 'matched' placements. This change had two consequences; first, a need to recruit more black families and, second, a commitment to providing a 'more ethnically sensitive service'. This study looks at how new policy was developed and implemented and, in particular, how 'good' practice of the past came to be regarded as malpractice in the present and the tensions and conflicts which ensued. The recruitment and selection procedure for new foster parents is viewed as an interactive process in which applicants are active participants rather than simply passive objects.