The foster care system is responsible for taking care of society’s most vulnerable children and it is important that the system can be reformed as needed to meet the needs of these children. Institutional reform litigation is an ineffective method of improving the child welfare system and should no longer be relied upon. Although widely used institutional reform litigation is not efficient or effective in improving the foster care system. Litigation is unsuccessful in achieving reform because it does not embrace collaboration, cooperation, or communication but instead fosters a hostile environment in which the agencies under court mandate are expected to enact change. In 2006, two new organizations were established in California, the California Blue Ribbon Commission on Children in Foster Care and the California Child Welfare Council. Both of these organizations created recommendations for improving foster care. Unlike institutional reform litigation, these two organizations worked collaboratively with various agencies and government branches in order to come up with recommendations that were feasible. These two organizations provide a method of reform that is less myopic and more supportive, allowing for meaningful improvements within California’s foster care system.

Fetale alkoholsindroom (FAS) is ‘n voortgaande probleem in Suid–Afrika, veral in die Wes–Kaap. Baie kinders met FAS word in pleegsorg geplaas vanweë hul ouers se drankmisbruik en onvermoë om die kinders te versorg. Daar is reeds baie navorsing gedoen in akademiese en sosiale omgewings oor die voorkoms en simptome van FAS. Minder is bekend oor die hanteringsbehoeftes by pleegouers van pleegkinders met FAS en derhalwe is dit die navorser se doelwit om navorsing te doen in hierdie veld. Die doel van hierdie studie was om die behoeftes wat pleegouers ondervind in die hantering van hul voorskoolse pleegkinders met FAS te verken en te beskryf. Die navorsingsvraag vir die studie lui soos volg: “Wat is pleegouers se hanteringsbehoeftes ten opsigte van hul voorskoolse pleegkinders met FAS?” Hierdie navorsingsvraag is aangespreek deur kwalitatiewe navorsing, en die studie kan geklassifiseer word as verkennende en beskrywende navorsing. Die navorser het vir die doel van hierdie studie gebruik maak van ‘n niewaarskynlikheidsteekproef deur middel van doelbewuste steekproefneming. Die navorser het 17 pleegouers, van twee gesinsorgorganisasies gewerf. Fokusgroeponderhoude binne twee fokusgroepe is benut om die hanteringsbehoeftes by pleegouers van voorskoolse pleegkinders met FAS te identifiseer. Die onderhoude is getranskribeer vir die doeleindes van dataanalisering en aan die hand van Creswell (2007) se stappe ontleed. Sewe temas is geïdentifiseer, naamlik (1) Dissiplinering van voorskoolse pleegkinders met FAS; (2) Hantering van gedrag van die voorskoolse pleegkind met FAS; (3) Ondersteuningsdienste aan pleegouers of pleegkinders; (4) Inligting of ondersteuning rondom FAS; (5) Verwerping van die voorskoolse pleegkind met FAS; (6) Emosionele impak van die voorskoolse pleegkind met FAS op die pleegouer; en laastens (7) Rol van die biologiese ouers van die voorskoolse pleegkind met FAS. Hierdie temas is in subtemas verdeel en aan die hand van toepaslike narratiewe uit die fokusgroepe bespreek en met literatuur gekontroleer. Gevolgtrekkings en aanbevelings is na aanleiding daarvan gemaak. / Thesis (M.A. (MW))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Fetale alkoholsindroom (FAS) is ‘n voortgaande probleem in Suid–Afrika, veral in die Wes–Kaap. Baie kinders met FAS word in pleegsorg geplaas vanweë hul ouers se drankmisbruik en onvermoë om die kinders te versorg. Daar is reeds baie navorsing gedoen in akademiese en sosiale omgewings oor die voorkoms en simptome van FAS. Minder is bekend oor die hanteringsbehoeftes by pleegouers van pleegkinders met FAS en derhalwe is dit die navorser se doelwit om navorsing te doen in hierdie veld. Die doel van hierdie studie was om die behoeftes wat pleegouers ondervind in die hantering van hul voorskoolse pleegkinders met FAS te verken en te beskryf. Die navorsingsvraag vir die studie lui soos volg: “Wat is pleegouers se hanteringsbehoeftes ten opsigte van hul voorskoolse pleegkinders met FAS?” Hierdie navorsingsvraag is aangespreek deur kwalitatiewe navorsing, en die studie kan geklassifiseer word as verkennende en beskrywende navorsing. Die navorser het vir die doel van hierdie studie gebruik maak van ‘n niewaarskynlikheidsteekproef deur middel van doelbewuste steekproefneming. Die navorser het 17 pleegouers, van twee gesinsorgorganisasies gewerf. Fokusgroeponderhoude binne twee fokusgroepe is benut om die hanteringsbehoeftes by pleegouers van voorskoolse pleegkinders met FAS te identifiseer. Die onderhoude is getranskribeer vir die doeleindes van dataanalisering en aan die hand van Creswell (2007) se stappe ontleed. Sewe temas is geïdentifiseer, naamlik (1) Dissiplinering van voorskoolse pleegkinders met FAS; (2) Hantering van gedrag van die voorskoolse pleegkind met FAS; (3) Ondersteuningsdienste aan pleegouers of pleegkinders; (4) Inligting of ondersteuning rondom FAS; (5) Verwerping van die voorskoolse pleegkind met FAS; (6) Emosionele impak van die voorskoolse pleegkind met FAS op die pleegouer; en laastens (7) Rol van die biologiese ouers van die voorskoolse pleegkind met FAS. Hierdie temas is in subtemas verdeel en aan die hand van toepaslike narratiewe uit die fokusgroepe bespreek en met literatuur gekontroleer. Gevolgtrekkings en aanbevelings is na aanleiding daarvan gemaak. / Thesis (M.A. (MW))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

This thesis inquires into the lived experience of five foster care alumni as they re-member and explore negotiations of time, space, and being made/becoming as young people formerly in government care. Informed by arts-based living inquiry (Irwin & de Cosson, 2004) and a collaborative research ethic, I undertook an emergent, rhizomatic exploration of new ways of viewing/thinking about the culture of care and about problematic representations of youth in care as irrevocably “broken,” “damaged,” and “deficient”. This process of inquiry allowed for movement between tangled lines of power, resistance, becoming, and desire informed by concepts central to the works of Foucault (1982), Deleuze and Guattari (1987), Tuck (2010), and Skott-Myhre (2008). Five foster care alumni explored their inquiry into “being in care” through arts-based methods that included collage, painting and drawing, and individual and group interviews. Important themes identified by participants included being seen/being heard, “foster child,” time, space, labels, disrupting “normal,” becoming complex, becoming political, and the importance of spirituality, belonging, Indigenous ways of knowing, and community. Such layered, complex representations foreground creativity and dignity while troubling the problematic representations of youth in care that permeate dominant discourses, practices, and policies shaping foster care systems and interventions. / Graduate

This study explores the childhood experiences and transitions to adulthood of 39 Romanian care leavers and adoptees, born around 1989 - 1990. In the past, Romania's children in care became known to the world as 'the Romanian orphans' and some of them have been subjects to neurodevelopmental research studies focusing on the setbacks posed by institutionalisation in early life. This research project takes a different angle by: • Using life history approach and therefore capturing the participants' in-depth accounts of how they recall their childhoods and the challenges they encountered in their transition to independent life; • Exploring four different types of placements and how they affect transition to independent life, from a user's perspective. The fact that Romania undertook reform of the child protection system within the timespan of this generation of children provided a research opportunity to collect the users' views on different types of placement that belonged to the unreformed system of the 1990s (large residential care and intercountry adoption) and the new types of placement (small group homes and foster care). For comparison purposes, I also included domestic adoption, a type of placement that was less controversial than the others at the time reforms were being introduced. Thus, the types of placement that are analysed through the research participants' accounts are: • Residential care (institutions and small group homes); • Foster Care; • Domestic Adoption; • Intercountry adoption. The study addressed two research questions: 1. How do Romanian born young people who grew up in care understand and narrate their experiences in different types of placement? 2. What narratives of agency are constructed by Romanian-born adults who grew up in different types of placement when they describe their transition to adulthood? By taking an interpretive stance, this study brings in the academic arena the voices of care leavers and adoptees. By using narrative analysis and focussing on the concept of dignity by employing identity theories, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Capabilities Approach, the study makes an important contribution to knowledge, with implications for further research, policy and practice. While interventions in child protection are influenced in each country by cultural, political and socio-legal factors, understanding the basic needs of children who are not raised by their birth families is important across different child protection systems. Therefore, the relevance of the research findings is not limited to Romania.

In contemporary Japan, approximately 85 per cent of children in alternative care are placed in large institutions. This contrasts with global discourse, encapsulated in the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children, and with practice in most OECD countries, which use foster care more extensively. Explanations for Japan's outlier status often focus on a homogenous national culture, yet there is significant regional variation between local authorities in how policy is implemented, most readily visible in the percentage of children in foster care. The title of this dissertation points to the three original contributions to knowledge of this work. The first is the rich ethnographic description of the child guidance centres and the decision-making process by which a child is removed from the family and placed into care. The second contribution is the explanation of regional variation in policy implementation. This is explained with reference to regional variation in resources, in norms, on the goals of care, the functions of different types of care, and the threshold until which a child is seen as being suitable for foster care, and in the organisational cultures of the child guidance centres. The final contribution to knowledge is the construction of the family-bond, between child and 'parent'. This is understood as singular and discrete, that is, that a child can only have one family-bond at any moment in time. Where foster care is constructed as anything other than professional or semi-professional care in a family setting it is seen as a threat to the child's family-bond with their natal parent. This dissertation argues that current attempts to increase the use of foster care by national and local authorities are likely to have limited impact unless they take this construction of the family-bond into account and focus on redefining the function of foster care.

Este estudo aborda as possibilidades de vir a ser sujeito em uma instituição de acolhimento, considerando as possíveis implicações para a criança que se encontra separada de sua família de origem. Neste sentido, é importante considerarmos as diferentes questões que podem acompanhar a criança no percurso de sua constituição, atentando para as dificuldades que demarcam este processo, muitas vezes oriundas de falhas nas suas primeiras relações. Buscamos, então, uma compreensão acerca de como se dá a constituição subjetiva no âmbito do abrigo, utilizando para tal uma metodologia de avaliação, prevenção e promoção de saúde mental na primeira infância, que já vem sendo utilizada em outros contextos. Assim, este trabalho propôs, através dos IRDIs (Indicadores Clínicos de Risco para o Desenvolvimento Infantil), a realização de uma operação de leitura da relação que se estabelece entre os bebês (de até 18 meses) e seus respectivos cuidadores (agentes educadores), que se encontram acolhidos em abrigos residenciais da Fundação de Proteção Especial do Rio Grande do Sul, no município de Porto Alegre. Nesta conjuntura, nos apoiamos nos pressupostos teóricos sustentados por Winnicott, de modo que suas contribuições nos auxiliaram a refletir sobre as possibilidades que cada bebê encontra ao se deparar privado da convivência com sua mãe/família. O processo de pesquisa abarcou diferentes momentos: I. Encontro de sensibilização e capacitação para os agentes educadores; II. Visitas a sete abrigos residências (em média quatro a cada casa), onde puderam ser observados dez bebês; III. Rodas de conversa com os agentes educadores responsáveis pelos cuidados dos bebês participantes. Assim, buscamos, a partir de conceitos fundamentais da teoria winnicottiana, apoio para refletir acerca do que se mostrou em evidência, de modo que as concepções de ambiente e de (des)continuidade dos cuidados serviram como base nesta leitura e construção de significados, o que permitiu a emergência de alguns apontamentos: Mesmo ressaltando o direito da continuidade dos cuidados que toda criança possui, a separação da mãe/família não necessariamente se faz, por si só, traumática. Isso nos conduziu a refletir acerca de que lugar ocupa o ambiente abrigo para estas crianças, tendo em vista que o fato de termos encontrado resultados satisfatórios (uns mais que outros) na leitura dos bebês a partir dos IRDIs nos permite inferir que de alguma forma este contexto opera de modo suficiente na subjetivação dos bebês. Compreendemos, portanto, que mesmo sendo portadores de uma marca primeira (privação da família de origem), existe grande possibilidade de o bebê se desenvolver plenamente, desde que possa estabelecer um encontro com alguém/ambiente disponível para sustentá-lo, para proporcionar uma experiência de continuidade e para impedir que seu sofrimento inicial impossibilite seu vir a ser. / This study approaches the possibilities of becoming a subject in a foster institution, considering the possible implications for a child who has been separated from his or her family of origin. Thus, it is important to consider the different issues that may follow the child during his or her constitution, paying attention to the difficulties that mark this process, which often originate from flaws in their first relations. This study seeks, therefore, to understand how the subjective constitution happens in a shelter environment, and uses a methodology of evaluation, prevention, and promotion of mental health in early childhood, which was already used in other contexts. Hence, this study proposed, through the use of IRDIs (Clinical Risk Indicators for Early Childhood Development), a reading operation of the relation established between babies (up to 18 months of age) and their respective caretakers (educational agents), who are hosted in the residential shelters of Foundation of Special Protection of Rio Grande do Sul, in Porto Alegre, Brazil. In this context, Winnicott’s theoretical background was used to support this study, in ways that his contributions helped on reflecting about the possibilities that each baby finds when he or she is deprived of living with his or her mother/family. The research process comprised different moments: I. Awareness and training meeting for the educational agents; II. Visits to seven residence shelters (an average of four per house), where ten babies could be observed; III. Conversation rounds with the educational agents responsible for the care of the participant babies. Hence, the fundamental concepts of the winnicottian theory were used as a support to reflect about what was evidenced, in such a way that the concepts of environment and (dis)continuity of care served as foundation in the reading and building of meanings, which allowed the emergence of some points: Even emphasizing that all children have the right to continuity of care, the separation from the mother/family is not necessarily traumatic on its own. This led us to reflect about which place the shelter environment has for these children, considering that the fact that satisfactory results (some more than others) were found in the reading of babies with the IRDIs enables us to infer that, somehow, this context operates in a sufficient way in the subjectivation of babies. It is therefore understood that even if the babies hold a first mark (deprivation of their family of origin), there is a great possibility that they go through a full development, as long as there is the establishment of an encounter with someone/environment available to support him or her, to grant an experience of continuity, and to impede that his or her initial suffering curbs their process of becoming a subject.

The statistics shows low quantity of custody transfer while it shows a high number of children in long-term foster care placement in Sweden. This qualitative study examines how social services work with custody transfer and the challenges that comes with it. Questions under study were; Which factors makes social services initiate a custody transfer? What argument stands for and against custody transfer after three years? Which dilemmas and difficulties are related to a custody transfer?   The aim of the study was to study what obstacles and possibilities a custody transfer contains according to social workers, and to try to understand the social workers process in working with custody transfer. The group under study consisted of five social workers with a variety of experience within the field. The material from the interviews was analysed by two steps using a phenomenological method. The result shows that many actors can make application of custody transfer difficult. The perspective of the placed children seemed to have a low value when deciding about the children’s staying and what’s best for them. Furthermore, the informants described social services today as in constant change, the staff has less experience and the guidelines is deficient. In accordance with earlier research, the result indicate however that custody transfer means many advantages for the children in foster care. Based on research and theoretical perspectives along with the findings of this study, the discussion is about the importance of children attachment, stability and participation in decisions about their own lives. Further, social services experiences of children worry and other emotions in foster care when custody transfer is discussed. There were also various dilemmas and difficulties according to the informants when assessments of custody transfer were made.

The diploma thesis deals with foster care in the Czech Republic as well as it represents its legislation. The thesis follows up psychosocial aspects that are closely connected with foster care. It describes aspects such as psychosocial parenthood and motivation, which encourages foster parents to provide foster care. Also, it represents system of values and motives, that are very significant when considering foster care. The thesis investigates the needs of foster parents as well as it describes the needs, that are considered significant and whether those needs meet their expectations. Plenty of valuable information, which are related to the topic of foster parenting, were provided by foster parents, who gave their personal reflection, that was verified by brief research probe. The discussion stated in the end of the thesis summarizes the motives, which are frequently mentioned in the topic, including their possible difficulties as well as the thought about the reserves of current support given by the state and by accompanying organizations while satisfying the needs of foster parents.

The thesis deals with the psychological aspects of foster care, which we can define in this context as the perspective of a foster relationship and its impact on the child and foster parent. This thesis describes the psychological needs of the child, there are also defined consequences of psychological deprivation, such as psychological deprivation. It also analyzes the emotional attachment, the manifestations of its disorder and possible treatment. In addition to the analysis of children placed in foster care, this thesis also focuses on a foster parent. From this aspect, the motivation for substitute parenthood, as well as the difference between expectations and reality, is evaluated. Thesis also points to the relationship between the foster parent and the child, with all the impacts, difficulties and mistakes that foster parents can make during their upbringing. At the end of this thesis are presented the practical principles for the successful and long-term functioning of the foster relationship.