Family placement or foster care (as it is more commonly known) is now the most widely used form of care forlooked after children in the UK, howeverthere is relatively little research evidence on any aspect of foster care (Berridge, 1997). A commonly held view of social care professionals is that foster care can provide a beneficial experience for foster children and families (Ruegger and Rayfield, 1999) and is more likely than alternative forms of substitute care to meet individual needs (Corrick, 1999). The aim of this study was to examine foster families' experiences of caring for children particularly in respect of the management of any emotional and behavioural difficulties children who are fostered may experience. Anecdotal evidence from foster carers and social workers suggests that children who are looked after by local authorities present a wider range of needs than previously and that foster carers are now facing a more challenging task (Ruegger and Rayfield, 1999). The study sets out to investigate: the range of problems children are presenting in foster care; the way in which carers manage children's difficulties; the impact looking after children has, if any, on foster families; the ways in which the service can be improved to help children and foster families manage difficulties; and the context in which foster families are caring for children. The research took a multi-method approach which encompassed the collection of quantitative data in order to provide an overview of foster carers' experiences and qualitative data which provided an opportunity to study the dynamics of foster care in more depth. The quantitative data was collected via a postal questionnaire to all the foster carers in one local authority and two unitary authorities (872 carers in total). The questionnaire asked carers about children's behaviour and needs and also about their views on support, training and planning in order to ascertain information from a broad range of carers about what would improve their ability to look after children. A short questionnaire was also sent to carers' children asking them to draw or write about their experiences of fostering. This provided information about their experiences of looking after foster children and illustrated how the behaviour of foster children can effect them. The qualitative data involved case studies of 10 placements of 13 children and young people who had recently moved into a new foster family. The case studies provided in-depth information about what it is like for a foster family to have new children move into their homes and what types and range of difficulties and needs the foster children were experiencing. The case studies were primarily about the foster families' perceptions and experiences but interviews were also carried out with the child's social worker and the children themselves (where appropriate) both at the beginning of the placement and 6 months later. Family placement social workers were consulted by means of a short questionnaire. The postal questionnaire to foster carers discovered that families were looking after children with a wide range of difficult to manage behaviours and needs. The behaviour of foster children and the impact of this on carers' own families was one of the main reasons foster carers cited for thinking of giving up fostering. In addition foster families reported frustration with and lack of support from social services. The training that carers most frequently asked for was on behaviour management. The responses from foster carers' own children illustrate the way in which the behaviour of foster children can impact upon their lives. The case studies highlighted the types of emotional and behavioural difficulties children in foster care may display. Foster carers were shown to be central in helping children overcome these problems. The reasons for placements breaking down or being close to breakdown were complex and individual, yet children's behaviour was a key factor in all of these cases. Carers struggled to cope with children's behaviour and neither carers or children were provided with the support they needed in six out of ten cases.

This diploma thesis deals with the institute of foster care. Foster care has been a widely discussed issue lately, in the field of family law. After years of theoretical considerations, discussions and preparations, a lot of significant changes have been made in this area, which have been incorporated into the new Civil Code and have been defined by the Amendment No. 401/2012 of the Coll., of the Act on Social-Legal Protection of children. The main objective of such changes is to professionalize foster care, and thus create an alternative to institutional care, to make foster care work in a more efficient way, to lower the risks of failure in daily practice, and to increase a notion of such form of substitute care in public. On the very top of general ideas and considerations remains especially the best interest and well being of a foster child. The emphasis is laid on the child's right to grow up in a background of a family and on help provided to a family with an endangered child. The diploma thesis is divided into seventeen chapters. First chapter gives an introduction to the issue of substitute care and talks about individual forms of such care. Second chapter presents a historical view into the individual phases of the development of foster care. Third chapter is dedicated to state and international...

Peu de recherches se sont intéressées à la scolarité des enfants confiés à une famille d’accueil. A de rares exceptions près, quand la scolarité est abordée dans les études, elle est analysée sous le versant des difficultés scolaires et de l’échec scolaire mais rarement en termes de réussite. Or, certains enfants confiés à une famille d’accueil s’accrochent à l’école et persévèrent dans leur scolarité jusqu’à l’obtention d’un niveau scolaire équivalent au moins au baccalauréat. Afin de comprendre les raisons de cet accrochage scolaire, nous interrogeons la question de la suppléance familiale en famille d’accueil et comment ce nouvel environnement « offert » à l’enfant redistribue les cartes du déterminisme social. Grâce aux témoignages de quarante personnes (jeunes et familles d’accueil), nous analysons les facteurs de protection qui permettent à ces jeunes de poursuivre leur scolarité malgré la présence de facteurs de risque dans leur parcours de vie. Nous étudions les rapports entre l’enfant confié, sa famille d’accueil et ses éducateurs notamment concernant la façon de gérer la question scolaire. L’accueil familial permet dans certains cas, à certains jeunes, de développer des liens forts avec une figure affective aux yeux de laquelle la scolarité est importante ce qui semble influencer la trajectoire scolaire des jeunes confiés. / Few research works have focussed on the academic achievement of children in foster care families. When the issue is investigated, it is mainly through the analysis of school difficulties and academic underachievement but rarely through academic success although some foster care children manage to do well at school and to carry on studying until they reach the equivalent of at least A-levels. To understand the underlying reasons behind this success, we will explore the question of corporate parenting in foster families, and how this new environment that is “offered” to the child can redistribute the cards of social determinism. Based on the analysis of forty face-to-face interviews with children who were in foster care, we identify some protective factors that will enable them to persevere in school despite adverse life conditions. We study the relationships between foster care children, their foster families, and their social workers, particularly with regards to the way they approach education. The foster care system in some instances allows children to develop strong bonds with an emotional figure, in the eyes of whom education is important, which seems to influence the academic trajectory of children in foster care.

This diploma thesis deals with the foster care for a temporary period. It examines how the legislation of this problamatics has changed since the reform in 2013 and how it is delivered into practice. The qualitative approach has been chosen for this research, using the primary and secondary data likewise. The primary data has been collected via semistructured interviews with three groups of respondents: the employees of OSPOD (the child's social and legal protection institutions in the foster care system), workers of nonprofit organization dealing with the foster care for a temporary period and parents for a temporary period. The respondents have been enquired with the questions based on the reviewed literature and articles. The whole system of the foster care for a temporary period, including its incorporation in legislation, is described in the text. The mentioned 2013 reform, important for the legislation too, is described as well. The theory of street-level bureaucracy and the theory of child development creates the academic basis for this thesis. The author first explains the implementation of the policy of the foster care for a temporary period, meaning the current setting and its real functioning. The biggest barriers for the accomplishment of the reform ambitions are mentioned together...

The diploma thesis is focused on the differences in the system of child care in a children's home and in foster care. The fundamental right of children in the event of their separation from their parents, which is based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, includes the right to regular personal contact with parents (if such contact is in the best interests of the child). The first part of the diploma thesis is focused on the legal anchoring of institutional education and alternative family education with a focus on children's homes and foster care. Furthermore, the basic rights of children, especially the right of children to contact with the biological family with a focus on the description of the practical functioning of supporting the contact of children with the biological family in children's homes and foster care. The second part of the diploma thesis is focused on research, the aim of which is to find out, through quantitative research, how children growing up in a given form of alternative care perceive the support of contact with the biological family.

The diploma thesis deals with contacts of a child in foster care with a child's biological family. The aim of this work was to map the experiences of children in foster care with contacts with biological family. The diploma thesis is divided into theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part is focused on approaching the system of surrogate family care, further explains the differences between partial forms of surrogate family care. Attention is paid to the experiencing of children, child's identity and also to the subject of attachment. The work deals in detail with the biological family of a child in foster care and their subsequent contacts as one of the main topics. The practical part follows the qualitative processing of narrative interviews, where the effort is to describe how children in long-term foster care experience contact with a biological family. The work is focused on the experience of a child in foster care with contacts with a biological family from the perspective of nine young people growing up in a foster family who formed the research set. The method of simple intentional selection and the snowball method were used to select the participants. The obtained data were evaluated using the cluster method. The research showed 7 clusters common in the participants' statements. These are the following clusters: the child's contact with the biological family; obtaining information about the biological family; feelings connected with contact; child's attitude to the biological parent (relatives); foster parents' reaction to the contact; child-foster relationship; current view of the contact. Each participant looks at the course of contacts with the biological family individually, but the results of the research have shown that there are situations that informants and informatics have in common. For example, the desire to get to know their biological parents, although individuals need time to process the obtained information about the biological family before contacting the biological family. The thesis will help to raise awareness about foster care and may be useful for future foster parents.