Foster Care | Better Care Network

Foster Care

The term “foster care” is used in a variety of ways, and, consequently, it often causes confusion and miscommunication. In the industrialized world it is generally used to refer to formal, temporary placements made by the State with families that are trained, monitored and compensated at some level. In many developing countries, however, fostering is kinship care or other placement with a family, the objective(s) of which may include the care of the child, the child’s access to education, and/or the child’s doing some type of work for the foster family.

Such care is informal and unregulated by the State. Foster care can also be understood as formal care, typically provided by adults who are not related to the child, but may include formalized kinship care. It is usually for a limited period until the child can return home or move into a more permanent placement such as adoption.

In emergency situations, such as armed conflict, informal fostering often occurs spontaneously when a family takes in an unaccompanied child. Also, in some emergency situations, agencies have organized a quasi-formal type of foster care to ensure immediate, family-based care for unaccompanied children. Such foster care should be formally arranged by the local authority or child protection organisation and include assessing each child’s best interests; screening, training, and monitoring of caretakers; and planning for the longer term needs of each child.

Foster care can provide the advantages of family-based care within a child’s own community. In some situations, particularly spontaneous care initiated during an emergency, it can become de facto adoption in settings where State child protection services and formalization of care arrangements are very limited or do not exist.

Foster care plays an important role in a situation where a child’s own family is not providing adequately for his or her care. It can provide protection and care for the child while the family situation is improved, with the eventual aim of family reunification.

It is vital that children are provided opportunities to express their wishes and concerns regarding with whom they live and have contact. The appointment of a legal guardian is a means of ensuring their opinions are taken into account.

Foster caretakers often receive support to meet the child’s needs and prevent placement breakdown. This may include parenting guidance and access to basic services for the child. Payment for care requires thoughtful consideration and should not encourage the separation of children from their families, or the use of a child for financial gain. All placements should be regulated to ensure the standards of care protect the child and encourage her development.

This body of literature provides examples from around the world of spontaneous, informal and formal fostering. It includes guidance on standards of care and child care policy.

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Key Research on Orphanages and Family Care: An Annotated Bibliography

Faith to Action Initiative, 01 Jul 2014

This resource is provided as a working bibliography of key research and evidence-based policy papers on the care of orphans and other vulnerable children separated from parental care.

Care of unaccompanied and trafficked children: Statutory guidance for local authorities on the care of unaccompanied asylum seeking and trafficked children

Department for Education, UK , 01 Jul 2014

This guidance sets out the steps local authorities should take to plan for the provision of support for looked after children who are unaccompanied asylum seeking children and child victims of trafficking.

Contextual Adaptation of Family Group Conferencing Model: Early Evidence from Guatemala

Jini L. Roby, Joan Pennell, Karen Rotabi, Kelley McCreery Bunkers, and Sully de Ucles, British Journal of Social Work (2014) 1–17, 17 Jun 2014

This article discusses the challenges in protecting Guatemalan children and their families from involuntary separation and presents the process, results and implications of a pilot training in which Guatemalan participants from government and civil society explored the efficacy and feasibility of the FGC model in their country.

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Country Care Review: Kyrgyzstan

Better Care Network, 13 Jun 2014

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child as part of its examination of the third and fourth periodic reports of Kyrgyzstan (CRC/C/KGZ/4-5) during its 65th Session at its 1880th and 1881st meetings held on 28 May 2014, and adopted, at its 1901st meeting, held on 13 June 2014.

Children, Orphanages, and Families: a Summary of Research to Help Guide Faith-based Action

Kelley Bunkers, Amanda Cox, Sarah Gesiriech, and Kerry Olson, Faith to Action Initiative, 12 Jun 2014

This Summary of Research provides a concise overview of a range of studies and findings that can inform approaches to caring for children who, through orphanhood, abandonment, or other causes, have been separated from parental care.

Niños, Orfanatos y Familias

Kelley Bunkers, Amanda Cox, Sarah Gesiriech, and Kerry Olson, Faith to Action Initiative, 12 Jun 2014

El presente resumen de investigaciones se ofrece a iglesias, organizaciones religiosas y personas de fe que buscan información basada en pruebas sobre la mejor manera de cuidar a huérfanos y niños separados del cuidado parental.

Deinstitutionalization of Children in Bulgaria: How Far and Whereto?

UNICEF, 01 Jun 2014

This Review, commissioned by UNICEF Bulgaria, is aimed at informing the recommendations for the Bulgarian Government’s Action Plan for the implementation of the National Strategy ‘Vision for Deinstitutionalisation of Children in Bulgaria.’

They are not always a burden: Older people and child fostering in Uganda during the HIV epidemic

Susan Kasedde, Aoife M. Doyle, Janet A. Seeley, David A. Ross - Social Science & Medicine, 10 May 2014

This qualitative study examines the role of older people (60 years and above) in fostering decisions for orphans and non-orphans within extended families in a rural Ugandan community heavily affected by HIV.

Without Dreams: Children in Alternative Care in Japan

Human Rights Watch, 08 May 2014

This report by Human Rights Watch examines Japan’s alternative care system for children. It describes its organization and processes, presents current data on the use of different forms of alternative care and highlights the problems found in the institutionalization of most children (including infants), as well as abuses that take place in the system.

Somebody's Children or Nobody's Children? How the Sociological Perspective Could Enliven Research on Foster Care

Christopher Wildeman and Jane Waldfogel , 07 May 2014

This review takes a three-pronged approach to showing why the dearth of sociological research focused on children in foster care is problematic.

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