ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the characteristic patterns of behaviour which often emerge more clearly at this point than at any other time during the placement. It considers what constitutes helpful and unhelpful responses from foster parents and social workers to adolescents negotiating the end of a placement. Depending on an adolescent’s behaviour as they anticipate the end of the placement it may be possible to make at least a tentative prediction of the likely shape of subsequent stages, and to plan appropriate intervention. When the placement seems likely to end with adolescent and foster parents in major disagreement, the most helpful role for a social worker is to try to hold the tension between them, allowing for the possibility that there may be some valid arguments on both sides. Social workers need to hold the balance between acknowledging the constraints and recognising the value of work that can be achieved within time limits and not hiding behind bureaucratic inevitabilities.
