Introduction

The lens through which we look at practice can never be value free, and neither can the lens through which these commentaries are made. My own position as a social work lecturer and a family therapist, and my extensive previous professional experience as a social work practitioner and manager in work with children and families, particularly in child protection, and the values and beliefs inherent in this work, must inevitably influence my commentary.

The opportunity for experienced practitioners to reflect, learn and creatively develop their practice is essential to the development of high quality services. This opportunity is clearly in evidence in these accounts.

Mary Cody

The Phillips family: An adoption assessment

The writing style of the assessment is engaging, explicit and interesting. Indeed, the style itself could be seen to reflect the open transaction with the family which the author is aiming for. The work is centrally concerned with developing a partnership approach. Negotiating this indicates the author's understanding of the power dynamics, balances and imbalances, which inevitably underpin the work throughout. Positioning this discussion at the beginning of the account emphasises its importance. It would have been useful to have some specific examples or brief excerpts of dialogue at this point, to illustrate the family's understanding of the power they individually and collectively had, did not have, or sought to develop.

The choice of theoretical perspectives to underpin practice is clearly articulated. Some of these approaches could have been linked. For example, the 1990s have yielded a developing literature on the implications of attachment theory for family systems (Hinde, 1990; Byng- Hall and Hinde, 1991; Donley, 1993). Byng-Hall (1995) defines a secure family base as:

Developing a further theoretical coherence in this way could contribute to the author's work in developing with the family coherent and accessible stories about their experiences of the adoption process.

The practice described in the two sessions, in considering how the adoptive parents might help the child understand and integrate his or her own previous life story into current experience is, in my view, the fundamental strength of this piece of work.