The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the incidence of instability in out-of-home care for children and how children experience this instability. The dissertation consists of two studies. The quantitative study is based on an examination of social work case files of 213 children who began 317 placements in 2005 and 2006. Every placement was followed for a maximum of two years. The qualitative study used interpretive phenomenology as method and is based on interviews with 12 purposively selected children who had experienced placement breakdown at some point during 2011 or 2012.   The quantitative study shows that the majority of children had experienced problems in their home environments prior to placement. Most commonly reported was parents’ substance abuse or mental health problems. Preschool and schoolchildren were more often placed in care due to neglect whereas adolescents were placed because of their own behavior problems or relational problems. Children in the qualitative study described that the problems they experienced prior to coming into care continued to influence them during their time in care. The quantitative study indicates that different types of instability are associated with children’s ages. That is, breakdown was most common for adolescents whereas preschool children more often experienced planned placements changes. Children in the qualitative study gave similar descriptions of planned placement changes and placement breakdown. The difficulty with which these children experienced the move from a foster family or group home depended on their relationship to caregivers. Therefore, planned placement changes from foster homes or institutional settings in which children reported being happy were described as more difficult than breakdown in placements from which children wanted to move. In children’s views, breakdown was caused by mismatches between them and caregivers, mistreatment in care settings, and their own behavior problems. However, children explained that when social workers did not listen to them, behavior problems in the form of running away, self-harming or behaving badly, were the only way of ending placements in which they were miserable. All children in the qualitative study described a wish for close relationships with consistent adults and an opportunity to feel that they belong somewhere. These fundamental needs were difficult for them to have satisfied due to their parents’ problematic life histories, instability in care which repeatedly placed children in new care situations, and a lack of continuity of social workers.

The overall aim of this study is to investigate the perception of support provided to orphan children in foster care placement in terms of education, care and support as well as protection by orphan children themselves, foster parents and social workers. Due to HIV/AIDS many children are being orphaned and are left behind without any visible means of support. HIV/AIDS remains undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges of the world today, as there is no part of the world that has not felt the devastating impact of the pandemic. This is already evidenced by the increase in number of orphans, child headed households and other vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS and the inability of the extended family system to provide such children with basic requirements such as shelter, food, medical care, education, love and support. The first chapter is focusing on the Magnitude of OVC in general and Namibia in particular. According to the National Plan of Action for OVC in Namibia, the total number of orphans and vulnerable children was estimated at 128 000 in 2007 (MGECW, 2007). According to 2001 Population and Housing Census the whole Khomas region had 6674 OVC, while Khomas urban had 5708 OVC, which means that in the Khomas region more OVC in an Urban areas while rural areas had less number which was 389 OVC (NPC, 2005). Chapter two presents a literature review and focuses on the phenomena of foster care placement. It includes the definition of terms such as an orphan child, a vulnerable child and foster care placement. It gives background details of foster care placement in general and foster care placement in the Namibia context. Also the support (care and support, education and protection) being offered to children in foster care placement are discussed. Chapter three focuses on the research methods and data collection of this study. The following elements are described in this chapter: Setting and samples, procedure, methods and methodological consideration, the role of the researcher, the limitations of the study and the ethnographic situation. Chapter four is devoted to the foster care placement legal framework in Namibia where the current foster care placement processes to access government grant to support foster families are discussed as well as foster care placement policy implications in Namibia. The conclusion of the findings on foster care placement processes is included. Chapter five consists of the analysis of the study. It provides the background information of the samples, questions, responses and interpretations of the main views of the respondents on the support provided to children in foster care placement in terms of care and support, education, protection as well as foster care placement process are provided in this chapter. Chapter six is focuses on discussions and conclusion. It includes major views of the respondents and the understanding of different voices of orphan children in foster care placement, foster parents and social workers who are professionals in this matter.

Many homeless youth come from foster homes, group homes, and other forms of substitute care. For young people in the child welfare system, elopement represents a major problem as it places them at risk for a number of troubling outcomes. Three studies were undertaken examining elopement among young people living in substitute care in Canada and the United States. The first study explored strengths and needs in a sample of 5,011 children and youth housed in a variety of substitute care settings including foster homes, group homes, residential treatment centres, emergency shelters, and juvenile justice facilities. Results indicated that needs, but not strengths, predicted running among children, while both needs and strengths predicted running among adolescents. Problems with school attendance, substance abuse, and delinquency also predicted running among both children and adolescents, with the exception of young children, for whom substance abuse was not a significant predictor. The second study explored the relationship between trauma, strengths, and elopement in a sample of 2,296 adolescents living in substitute care. Sexual abuse, physical abuse, school violence, and traumatic grief/separation were found to predict elopement. In addition, family violence and community violence predicted running among younger but not older adolescents. Educational strengths predicted a lower risk of running away for all adolescents, while well-being and relationship permanence predicted a lower risk of running among younger and older adolescents, respectively. The impact of strengths on the relationship between trauma and elopement was evaluated, with results suggesting that elopement was not predicted by an interaction between strengths and trauma. The third study was qualitative in nature and explored the perspectives of youth who had run away from substitute care at least once in their lifetime. Youth provided information about their experiences as well as suggestions designed to reduce the prevalence of running away among youth in substitute care. Findings for all three studies were discussed in relation to the literature with implications for research and prevention.

The aim of this study was to understand the contact between foster homes and social workers, by doing a comparison of the social workers and the foster homes experiences of the cooperation that is between them. We started from three main questions to get an answer to our aim, how the foster homes and the social workers experience the organization of the foster care in the Social Service as an impact of the cooperation, what does the foster homes and the social workers experience as a important fact of a successful placement and finally, how does the foster homes and the social workers experience the supporting and controlling contact that is between them. To get our results we based our study on interviews whit four foster homes and whit four social workers. The analysis was based on one theoretical perspective, Skaus (2007) analytical approach for power and help. As a conclusion we have found out, that the organization of the Social Service has significance for the contact between social workers and foster homes. The social workers and the foster homes have different opinions of how the Social Service should be organized, so that the contact should be as good as possible. The social workers saw the ground work as an important fact for the placement to be successful. Both social workers and foster homes saw the confidence between them, as an important fact for the placement to be successful. All four foster homes and two of the social workers saw the controlling part of the contact as a good and necessary thing. The other two of the social workers saw the controlling part as a complicated assignment.  The social workers saw the controlling part as an inadequate thing in the foster care today. Both foster homes and social workers experience that the supporting contact between them are working well.

The purpose of this study was to examine how the social services are applying the sections of the law concerning custody transfer within foster care. More specifically the aim was to find out what circumstances are underlying the social services decision to go through with a custody transfer within the foster care, and to find out which difficulties and possibilities the law offers when it comes to this process. The study was based on interviews with six respondents, within the social services, who have great experiences working with these issues. The study concluded that there are several factors which affects the decision whether to implement at custody transfer or not, and some of these are the child’s attachment, the child’s fundamental needs and consent from the involving parties in the case. The study also concluded that some of the difficulties with the process involve a contradictory law and the lack of support to the child´s new family after the custody transfer has been implemented.  Some of the positive aspects with custody transfer within the foster care, that the study showed, includes that the child get to live with the family the child regards as his or her own, and a reduced amount of concern and stress, to the benefit of a more stable and safe environment. The analysis was based on two different perspectives: the attachment theory and Maslow´s theory on the hierarchy of the human´s needs

This is a study about children’s welfare and the Child Care Board way of working in Malmö city. We decided to make this a narrative and document analyses where the main focus have been the interactions between human beings, which means everything from the interaction between parents and child as well as the interaction between families and society. We wanted to investigate any possible alterations within the working system between 1931–1940. Our analysis showed that there hasn’t been a big change with the Swedish legislation. There had however been a slight change in the reasons as to why parents and society got in touch with Social services and reported any mistreatment in the families. There were many people especially from the lower working class that couldn’t afford proper apartments or provide child care for their children. This was the main reason for them to apply to the Child Care Board. Many young single mothers who didn’t have any family to care for them applied to join their infants at the protective homes, this was a special home which was often used as a nursery if the children’s parents where at hospital or for some other reason couldn’t care for them. If Social services found the home situation as bad as to impede the Child development, the secure homes would be used as a safe place until a suitable foster home could be found. The closer we got to the 1940s we saw that the reasoning behind society applying to Social services where mostly illness within the family. Tuberculosis had Malmö in an iron fist and both adults and children got the dreaded disease. The World War II started in 1939 which also automatically forced the male population leave their homes, wives and children. This caused problems within the individual families. It meant that a lot of mothers now had to start working in order to support the rest of the family until their husbands returned home. For many of them the only way to survive during time was to allow the children to be taken into foster care.

The purpose of this study was to illustrate how social welfare secretaries reason around the decision to place a child in foster care. More specifically it aims to find out what social welfare secretaries think about the childs contact with its biological parents during out-of-home placement. The data was collected through questionnaires that were sent out by mail. The result was analyzed with the conceptions; attachment, separation, dissonance and acting space. As a conclusion the result show that the social welfare secretaries experienced that the biological parents sometimes stood in the way of the childs need. This meant that sometimes the child wasn’t given the best available care. The attachment was a central aspect of the decision. The biological parent was described as a significant part of the out-of-home placement and the contact between the child and the parents was seen as important. Mainly, the social welfare secretaries, didn’t give any motive to why. It seems to be the general opinion that it’s good for the child to be in contact with its biological family. / Uppsatsen handlar om separationer, anknytning och svårigheten att bedöma vad som är i barnets bästa intresse. Familjehemsplaceringar är den vanligaste insatsen som socialtjänsten tillhandahåller. Syftet med studien är att belysa hur socialsekreterare resonerar inför beslut om att placera ett barn i familjehem. De tre forskningsfrågorna är; hur resonerar socialsekreterarna kring barnets behov och föräldrarnas rätt? Hur ser socialsekreterarna på kontakten mellan barnet och de biologiska föräldrarna? Hur beskriver socialsekreterarna sina tankar runt beslutet? Studien är en kvalitativ undersökning där postenkäter har skickats till socialförvaltningar i Sverige. Resultatet analyseras utifrån begreppen; anknytning, separation, dissonans och handlingsutrymme. Resultatet visar att socialsekreterarna upplevde att de biologiska föräldrarnas rätt ibland stod i vägen för barnets behov vilket innebar att barn inte alltid kunde ges bästa tillgängliga vård. Anknytningen mellan barnet och de biologiska föräldrarna kommer fram som en central aspekt i beslutet. De biologiska föräldrarna beskrivs som delaktiga i placeringen. Kontakten mellan barnet och de biologiska föräldrarna är viktig men överlag ges få motiveringar till varför kontakten ska bibehållas. Det tycks vara den allmänna uppfattningen att barnet har behov av kontakt med ursprungsfamiljen.

<p>The purpose of this study was to illustrate how social welfare secretaries reason around the decision to place a child in foster care. More specifically it aims to find out what social welfare secretaries think about the childs contact with its biological parents during out-of-home placement. The data was collected through questionnaires that were sent out by mail. The result was analyzed with the conceptions; attachment, separation, dissonance and acting space. As a conclusion the result show that the social welfare secretaries experienced that the biological parents sometimes stood in the way of the childs need. This meant that sometimes the child wasn’t given the best available care. The attachment was a central aspect of the decision. The biological parent was described as a significant part of the out-of-home placement and the contact between the child and the parents was seen as important. Mainly, the social welfare secretaries, didn’t give any motive to why. It seems to be the general opinion that it’s good for the child to be in contact with its biological family.</p> / <p>Uppsatsen handlar om separationer, anknytning och svårigheten att bedöma vad som är i barnets bästa intresse. Familjehemsplaceringar är den vanligaste insatsen som socialtjänsten tillhandahåller. Syftet med studien är att belysa hur socialsekreterare resonerar inför beslut om att placera ett barn i familjehem. De tre forskningsfrågorna är; hur resonerar socialsekreterarna kring barnets behov och föräldrarnas rätt? Hur ser socialsekreterarna på kontakten mellan barnet och de biologiska föräldrarna? Hur beskriver socialsekreterarna sina tankar runt beslutet? Studien är en kvalitativ undersökning där postenkäter har skickats till socialförvaltningar i Sverige. Resultatet analyseras utifrån begreppen; anknytning, separation, dissonans och handlingsutrymme. Resultatet visar att socialsekreterarna upplevde att de biologiska föräldrarnas rätt ibland stod i vägen för barnets behov vilket innebar att barn inte alltid kunde ges bästa tillgängliga vård. Anknytningen mellan barnet och de biologiska föräldrarna kommer fram som en central aspekt i beslutet. De biologiska föräldrarna beskrivs som delaktiga i placeringen. Kontakten mellan barnet och de biologiska föräldrarna är viktig men överlag ges få motiveringar till varför kontakten ska bibehållas. Det tycks vara den allmänna uppfattningen att barnet har behov av kontakt med ursprungsfamiljen.</p>

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The vast majority of child maltreatment in the United States is perpetrated by parents and over half of maltreated children placed in out-of-home care are reunified with the parents from which they were removed. Additional victimization of these children sometimes necessitates their reentry into out-of-home care. These realities emphasize the need to engage parents in assessment, planning, and services throughout the life of a child welfare case. Engagement is a key ingredient in social work practice and is widely accepted in the child protection arena as critical to successful service planning and participation. However, little research has focused on the relationship between engaging parents and child welfare case outcomes. Utilizing data systematically collected by the Florida Department of Children and Families as part of its quality assurance program, this study examined the relationship between case worker efforts to engage parents in case planning, decisions impacting the child, and services; and the length of a child's stay in out-of-home care related to being discharged within 12 months of entering out-of-home care, and a child's reentry into out-of-home care within 12 months of being reunified with his or her parents. Cox regression analyses revealed that Hispanic children were less likely to be discharged from out-of-home care within 12 months of entry and younger children were more likely to reenter out-of-home care within 12 months of being reunified with their parents. Multivariate models revealed that case worker efforts to engage fathers in case planning and decisions impacting the child were significant predictors of children being discharged from out-of-home care within 12 months of entry, though this did not hold true for efforts to engage mothers. No case worker efforts to engage parents were significant predictors of children reentering out-of-home care within 12 months of being reunified with their parents. Although this study took an important step in more fully understanding how engaging parents may influence case outcomes, the findings suggest considerations for social work practice and research. Additional training to enhance cultural awareness and cultural competency skills could aid case workers in tailoring their engagement efforts to the race/ethnicity of children and families with whom they work. Further research into the lack of association between engaging mothers and length of stay, and between engaging parents and reentry into out-of-home care is also warranted. Quantitatively measuring engagement from the parents' perspective should also advance the line of inquiry into the relationship between engagement and child welfare case outcomes.