Family Routes: children who returned to care after leaving for adoption or to live with a special guardian

Family Routes: children who returned to care after leaving for adoption or to live with a special guardian

Julie Selwyn, Julian Gardiner · Department for Education, Research Report RR1560

Researchers used linked English social-care records to examine return to care following 70,170 adoptions and 48,020 special guardianship orders. Estimated return-to-care rates at eight years were about 2% after adoption and 10% after special guardianship. Older age at the permanence order was associated with higher risk, and the report followed children’s subsequent placements after return to care.

Limitations: Adoption and special guardianship are distinct routes with different child and family characteristics. Return to recorded care does not capture all family separation, distress or informal living arrangements and can include temporary returns. Follow-up lengths varied, so estimated rates should not be confused with simple percentages of the entire sample. Children did not directly supply this administrative evidence. Government or public-body commissioned/published research concerning adoption, care or education systems. Readers may take the commissioning/publication relationship and the body’s role in those systems into account.

Research type

Longitudinal linked administrative-data study

Source reviewed

Full text

Peer reviewed

No

Age group

Children / Adolescents