When considering placements for all children and young people, Section 22 (5) (c) of the Children Act 1989 stresses the importance of considering their religion, race, language and cultural background. A recent study which explored the care experiences of looked-after dual heritage young people (those with one white and one black parent of African Caribbean origin); found that in addition to these factors, practitioners also took into account the placement family’s ability to support dual heritage young people in coping with racism. In most cases, this resulted in the young people being placed in black families. Thus, the implementation of Section 22 (5) (c) can result in the neglect of dual heritage young people’s ‘white heritage’.
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