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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Educational outcomes of children from long-term foster care: Does foster parents’ educational attainment matter?

Marie Berlin, Bo Vinnerljung, Anders Hjern, Lars Brännström - Developmental Child Welfare, 09 Dec 2019

Using Swedish longitudinal register data on 2.167 children with experience of long-term foster care, this study explores the hypothesized mediating role of foster parents’ educational attainment on foster children’s educational outcomes, here conceptualized as having poor school performance at age 15 and only primary education at age 26.

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Addressing poor educational outcomes among children with out-of-home care experience: Studies on impact, pathways, and interventions

Hilma Forsman - Stockholm Studies in Social Work, 06 Dec 2019

With an ambition of supporting the design of effective preventive child welfare measures targeting children in out-of-home care (OHC), the overall aim of this thesis is to examine education as a possible intervention path for improving their development and overall life chances.

An exploration of placement-related psychosocial influences on school engagement among adolescents in foster care

Brittany P. Mihalec-Adkins, Sharon L. Christ, Elizabeth Day - Children and Youth Services Review, 04 Dec 2019

The current study uses a nationally representative sample of adolescent foster youth in the U.S. to test a model of the influences of placement-related factors on school engagement – namely, foster youth’s perceptions of security in their foster placements, their reports of education-specific involvement by foster caregivers, and the mediating potential of adolescents’ expectations for their future.

Children in Care: Exploitation, Offending and the Denial of Victimhood in a Prosecution-led Culture of Practice

Julie Shaw, Sarah Greenhow - The British Journal of Social Work, 02 Dec 2019

The following article reports upon recent research that explored the perceptions of professionals of the issues that affect the sexual and criminal exploitation of children in care, along with a discussion of the effectiveness of current responses to these issues and the challenges that professionals face.

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Unaccompanied refugee minors and foster care: A narrative literature review

Frank Van Holen, Lenny Trogh, Elke Carlier, Laura Gypen, Johan Vanderfaeillie - Child & Family Social Work, 02 Dec 2019

This article describes the results of a narrative literature review on empirical research examining the outcomes and/or experiences of unaccompanied refugee minors in family foster care.

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Children in Care: Exploitation, Offending and the Denial of Victimhood in a Prosecution-led Culture of Practice

Julie Shaw, Sarah Greenhow - The British Journal of Social Work, 02 Dec 2019

The following article reports upon recent research, which explored the perceptions of professionals of the issues that affect the sexual and criminal exploitation of children in care, along with a discussion of the effectiveness of current responses to these issues and the challenges that professionals face.

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A guide to looked after children statistics in England: December 2019

UK Department for Education, 01 Dec 2019

This document provides a guide to looked after children statistics published by the UK Department for Education.

Cross-over kids: Effective responses to children and young people in the youth justice and statutory Child Protection systems

Susan Baidawi & Rosemary Sheehan - Report to the Criminology Research Advisory Council. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 01 Dec 2019

The study set out to examine the extent to which children and young people before the Criminal Division of the Victorian Children’s Court in Australia were also clients of the statutory Child Protection system, and to better understand the characteristics of this group.

“Be supportive and understanding of the stress that youth are going through:” Foster Care Alumni Recommendations for Youth, Caregivers and Caseworkers on Placement Transitions

Ruth M.Chambers, et al - Children and Youth Services Review, 30 Nov 2019

This qualitative research study examined foster care alumni’s advice for youth in care, caregivers, and child welfare caseworkers on how to best handle placements moves.