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.

Displaying 591 - 600 of 2221

Browse Other Topics

The need for preparing youth ageing out of foster care For independent living in South Africa

Mariska Shaw, Marie Steyn, Elzahne Simeon - Children and Youth Services Review, 11 Dec 2019

This is a qualitative study aimed to explore the need for preparing children ageing out of foster care for independent living in South Africa.

View Article

Is Nurturing Attachments training effective in improving self-efficacy in foster carers and reducing manifestations of Reactive Attachment Disorder in looked after children?

Naomi Gibbons, Alison M Bacon, Lisa Lloyd - Adoption & Fostering, 11 Dec 2019

The present study reports on a mixed-methods evaluation of the Nurturing Attachments training, focusing particularly on its impact on carer self-efficacy and behavioural manifestations of Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) which are common among looked after children, even if they are not formally diagnosed.

View Article

Adverse childhood experiences among foster parents: Prevalence and association with resilience, coping, satisfaction as a foster parent, and intent to continue fostering

Morgan E. Cooley, Bethany Womack, Jacqueline Rush, Kristie Slinskey - Children and Youth Services Review, 11 Dec 2019

The purpose of this study was to examine the occurrence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) among a convenience sample of foster parents and explore multiple relationships between foster parent-reported ACEs, resilience, and other indicators of foster parent function and well-being (parental stress, satisfaction as a foster parent, perceived challenges with fostering, intent to continue fostering).

View Article

The development of DDP-informed parenting groups for parents and carers of children looked after or adopted from care

Kim S Golding - Adoption & Fostering, 11 Dec 2019

This article describes the development of two parenting groups – Nurturing Attachments and Foundations for Attachment, devised to provide much needed support for foster, residential and kinship carers and adopters parenting children and young people of all ages. Both programmes are informed by the Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) model.

View Article

When carers end foster placements: exploring foster carers’ experience of adolescent foster placement breakdown

Daniella Valentine, Fiona MacCallum, Jacky Knibbs - Adoption & Fostering, 11 Dec 2019

The aim of the present study was to provide an exploratory account of foster carers’ lived experience of ending adolescent foster placements.

View Article

Perspectives of youth aging out of foster care on relationship strength and closeness in their support networks

Jared I. Best, Jennifer E. Blakeslee - Children and Youth Services Review, 10 Dec 2019

This study incorporated a network approach to understanding how youth discussed strong ties and defined closeness in relationships.

Country Care Review: Portugal

Better Care Network, 09 Dec 2019

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Reconciling care and justice in contesting social harm through performance and arts practice with looked after children and care leavers

Tonimarie Benaton, Tamsin Bowers-Brown, Thomas Dodsley, Alix Manning-Jones, Jade Murden, Alexander Nunn - Children & Society, 09 Dec 2019

This paper reports findings from an innovative arts-based intervention with Looked After Children and young people and concludes that holding competing value sets in creative tension is central to the success of the programme in helping young people to cope with and contest social harm.

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.

View Article

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.