Residential and Foster Care in the European Community: Current Trends in Policy and Practice

Abstract

Matthew Colton is Lecturer in Applied Social Studies at the University College of Swansea. He is author of Dimensions of Substitute Child Care: A Comparative Study of Foster and Residential Care Practice (Avebury, 1989), and co-editor of Innovations in Residential Care (ACCO, 1991), with W. Hellinckx, E. Broekaert and A. Vanden Berge. His current research includes a major study of policy and practice in relation to children in need and their families under the Children Act 1989, and a longitudinal analysis of the educational progress of children in foster care. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the European Scientific Association on Residential and Foster Care for Children and Adolescents, and a member of the editorial board of Community Alternatives: International Journal of Family Care.