**About the Special Issue Editor**

**Derek Kirton** is a reader in social policy and social work at the University of Kent. His research interests, though ranging fairly widely across the field of child welfare, are mostly focused on adoption, foster care, and children in state care. In relation to adoption, he has contributed primarily to the literature on transracial adoption, where he has written a book 'Race', Ethnicity and Adoption (Open University Press, 2000), a shorter monograph, and numerous journal articles and book chapters. Some of these publications have addressed issues related to genealogy. Dr. Kirton has also conducted, with colleagues, related research involving adults formerly in care (their reasons for seeking access to care records, searching, reunions, and identity concerns through the life course). Other research and scholarly interests include the wider politics of child welfare and the place of foster care in provision for those in public care. Here, the particular focus has been on the changing nature of foster care and its 'professionalization', a term capturing moves toward regarding foster care as a job and/or profession, in turn sparking debates about how this trend articulates with parenting
