Hi Nick,

In the US, the only consent you need is the legal guardian, which is the state, because birth parents and foster parents do not have legal rights with respect to the child.  But the state (in New York, the agency is called Administration for Children's Services) almost never consents for research, so most of us have given up studying children in foster care.  I tried to mount a study in the late 1990s with such children and got nowhere.  That has been my experience and the experience of many of my colleagues here in New York.  Others' experiences in other US states might be different.

Geoff

Geoff Goodman, Ph.D., ABPP, FIPA, CST, CSAT-S, CMAT-S
Associate Professor
Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program
Long Island University
720 Northern Blvd.
Brookville, NY 11548
(516) 299-4277
http://myweb.cwpost.liu.edu/ggoodman/home.htm
________________________________________
From: list-manager@psychotherapyresearch.org [list-manager@psychotherapyresearch.org] on behalf of Nick Midgley [nickmidgley@btconnect.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2015 5:54 AM
To: caftr@psychotherapyresearch.org
Subject: CaFTR gaining consent for clinical research with looked after children

Dear colleagues

I'm currently setting up a study evaluating a clinical intervention for looked after children. I'm aware that there are quite complex issues around gaining consent with this population (incl. consent from local authorities, foster-carers, birth families as well as the young people themselves), and considerable challenges in doing this in a timely way, if the study is a clinical one and we don't want to delay access to services.

Is there anyone out there who has experience in this area who'd be willing to share their experiences? Our study is in the UK, but would be interesting to hear about situation in other countries too.

Please post back-channel directly to me, if you prefer - although could post to the forum too, as others may be interested to hear about how these issues are handled.

Best wishes,

Nick