Practitioner's response: Children's perspectives of different care settings: Foster care, adoption and kinship care

Samia Michail's article, 'Children's perspectives of different care settings', is pertinent to any practitioner working in the child protection field. It raised significant issues for practitioners at any stage of the child protection continuum. Whilst the model of practice employed in the child protection field is one of being child-centred, I feel there are many circumstances relating to policy and procedures that detract from the consistent use of this model. I would like to be more consultative with children in decision-making, however often this is not possible for various reasons. In practice, this can be due to children with developmental disabilities, cognitive impairments and emotional deregulation.