UK Child Protection and OOHC Providers Share their Experiences of the Attachment Style Interview (ASI)
The Attachment Style Interview (ASI) has been widely used to inform practice and enhance support to families for over ten years in the UK. The following endorsements provide some examples of its application:
“We are a team who undertake expert parenting assessments for the London Borough of Wandsworth. These assessments are used as expert evidence in the family courts where there are child protection concerns and consideration is being given to removal of a child from their birth family. As a standardised measure we find it has been received extremely well by the family courts. Using the ASI has increased the professionalism of our parenting assessments and enabled us to evidence complex and difficult relational dynamics that exist in families. Increasingly, we are finding that the family courts are specifically requesting that we undertake an ASI as part of our parenting assessment, given how much value they add to the assessment as a whole.”
Social Worker – Child Protection, UK
“For the past ten years we have used the Attachment Style Interview tool to work more effectively with young people across our sixteen children’s homes and therapeutic Wraparound services and we are now extending its use in fostering services. The ASI has been indispensable in providing a deeper understanding for our Support staff, Therapeutic Workers and Supervising Social Workers. The knowledge afforded by the ASI process has enabled them to develop more nuanced care plans for children and young people enabling happier more secure homes and brighter futures.”
CEO – St Christopher’s Fellowship, UK
“We have been using the ASI in our Agency for over 10 years. It is now an integral part of our assessments of suitability to adopt. The ASI gives us important evidence based information about the likely support needs of prospective adoptive parents. Because the ASI records in applicants’ own words, feedback about their attachment style and what it means for them is easily understood. It leads to a collaborative approach in the relationship, which is invaluable in planning support with them when children are placed. It also gives us an insight into the ability of applicants to name their emotions, their communicative openness, the quality of their significant relationships, and their view of the world in general.”
Senior Adoption Practitioner – Adoption Matters, UK
