Foster Care and Permanency an Analysis of the Context for Practice

This paper is an historical analysis of foster care, exploring its linkage with the concept of permanency in the United States (a major force in defining the direction of foster care policy) and in Australia. Use of the political economy and feminist approaches highlights the extent to which the child welfare system is based on policies which enhance social inequality, while promoting a particular ideal of the nuclear family which dichotomises mothers as good or bad.