Sons and Daughters of Foster Carers – Invisible, Vulnerable or Valued?

Traditional ways of working with children and young people are giving way to new practices. Where practice solutions previously tended to be imposed on children and young people, professionals are now looking to engage them as vital partners in actively negotiated and co-constructed models of working.

Combining social ecological and social constructionist perspectives drawn from a range of academic and practice disciplines, Working with Children and Young People explores and interrogates how ideas about childhood, policy and professional discourses change over time and, in turn, affect the issues faced by children, young people and their families.

This chapter is about the different ways that the sons and daughters of foster carers are constructed through the frameworks of research, policy and practice. The unique and complex position of these children and young people is analysed from a social constructionist paradigm that variously represents them as invisible, vulnerable or valued. It is viewed as essential that sons and daughters are meaningfully engaged as partners in the fostering enterprise.