Children without parental care in Poland: Foster care, institutionalization and adoption

Sandra Knuiman, Catharina HAM Rijk, René AC Hoksbergen and Anneloes L Van Baar

This article published in International Social Work describes the historical background and current situation of the child welfare system for children without parental care in Poland. Whereas after the Second World War children in institutional care were mainly orphaned children, nowadays most children in out-of-home care are ‘social orphans’, children deprived of a family environment as a result of family breakdown, or because of seriously depriving circumstances which endanger development. The article explains how the child welfare system for children without parental care is organized in Poland focusing on institutional care, foster care and adoption. It also discusses indi­rect and direct reasons contributing to the necessity of placing children in out-of-home care. Despite reforms aimed at deinstitutionalization and a growing number of foster care placements in Poland, almost 20,000 children remain in institutional care. In 2009, 2.7 percent of the children in residen­tial care had lost both parents and 19.2 percent had lost one parent. In most cases, out-of-home placement was the result of a family court ruling to protect the child from a "dysfunctional family situation." The most common reason for this decision was degradation in parental functioning, causing neglect of the chil­dren in important areas like safety, health and intellectual development. Alcohol abuse is one of the main reasons rendering parents unable to fulfil their parental tasks. Estimates are that as many as 90 percent of the children in institutional care are children of parents with alcoholism.

The authors note that in the last decades a transformation took place from state-run institutional care for children without parental care to a policy aimed at preventing family disruption and placing children in family-type care whenever possible. Improvements have been made in the Polish welfare system for children without parental care but the process of change is slow and many children still remain in institutional care, partly because there are insuffi­cient places in family-type care. According to the authors, financial resources are often insufficient to prevent families from disintegrating and to offer childcare in the most favourable environment. The authors, however, suggest that with the new 2011 Act on Family Assistance and Alternative Care an important step has been made to further improve the situation for children without parental care. They highlight that for the future further deinstitutionalization and offering more family-type care remain important issues for the wellbeing of these children.  More (non-related) foster families are also needed to enable children, who need out-of-home care, to grow up in a family envi­ronment. Another essential issue is preventing placement of a child in out-of-home care and the return of children to their biological family. 

©International Social Work