Few children nowadays are placed for adoption with no form of contact planned with birth relatives and it has become common professional practice to advocate direct rather than indirect contact. Practice has outstripped evidence in this respect and not enough is known about how contact arrangements actually work out, particularly for older children adopted from state care. Such children have often experienced neglect, and sometimes abuse, and have frequently been adopted without parental agreement.
Based on research with a large number of adoptive parents, children and birth relatives,...

This book brings lesbian and gay issues to the centre of the debate on anti-oppressive practice. It is an accessible and practical guide to the subject for all involved in student learning, aiming to provide practice teachers and educators with tools to help students develop their understanding of the effects of heterosexism as well as providing strategies for positive practice. Part 1 considers: a cents the social background, raising important issues about the ways in which lesbians and gay men are marginalised in society and the subsequent reflection in social work education and practice; a...