Abstract
Problems and threats that often arise in families are the reason why children are placed in foster care. In such a situation, a wide range of contexts and different conditions of foster care must be taken into account in order to provide effective assistance to children and families. Tasks related to the organisation of the system of foster custody have been assigned by the legislator to organisational units of local government at the county (powiat) level. This article presents the content concerning foster care as the tasks of the district government: the types of foster families, legal and organizational aspects of this form of care and the essence of the organization of foster care at county level are discussed.