scholarly journals “Je denkt altijd dat het jou niet zal overkomen…” : Het belang van biologische ouders in pleegzorg

Pedagogiek ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-190
Author(s):  
Lieselot De Wilde
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Foster Children ◽  
Institutional Care ◽  
The State ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
Family Preservation ◽  
Biological Parents

Abstract “You always think it won’t happen to you…” The importance of biological parents in foster careEuropean societies still struggle with the question of how to deal best with, and organise care for, those children who for various reasons need to be placed out of their home. Foster care is currently preferred over institutional care when children are in the care of the state. This evolution towards a manifest choice for foster care is defended as being more in ‘the best interests of the child’. During the last decades a shift towards a child’s perspective away from a family-preservation perspective is noticeable. However, we do not know what this shift means for biological parents of foster children. We therefore examine whether the attention to the needs of children is at the expense of the rights and identity of the biological parents. Does strengthening the rights of one party entail a curtailment of rights for another party? Or can we possibly reconcile various interests?

scholarly journals Norm Localization and Contestation: The Politics of Foster Children in Turkey

Genealogy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Burcu Akan Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Family System ◽  
Economic Incentives ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
Foster Parenting ◽  
Turkish Children ◽  
Biological Parents ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
National Campaigns ◽  
The Cost

International norms do not diffuse linearly; they are localized, adapted and contested at every turn. Foster care systems have been enthusiastically promoted by international organizations to serve the best interests of children. This study explores the recent adaptation of foster care (Koruyucu Aile) in Turkey. This elite-driven norm change was institutionalized through comprehensive legislation, economic incentives and national campaigns, situated in the “politics of responsibility” arising from moral duty and national and religious ethics. These efforts faced early resistance, leading to slow cultivation of foster families, while over time, the foster system found unlikely allies among urban middle-class women. Using Zimmermann’s typologies of reinterpretation of norms through an analysis of narratives about foster parenting in 50 local and national TV productions, this article shows how the foster family system has evolved as a panacea for women’s empowerment in contemporary Turkish society. In parallel, Turkey has embarked on an intense criticism of the care of ethnic Turkish children in European foster care systems. However, this creative utilization of the foster system has come at the cost of the rights of biological parents and a permanency that has decoupled the Turkish foster care system from its counterparts around the world.

Health Care of Foster Children

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 79 (4) ◽  
pp. 644-646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Foster Care ◽  
Foster Children ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Well Being ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
Social Service Agencies ◽  
Developmental Problems

Children entering foster care generally have a higher than average number of health problems, and the care they receive is usually insufficient to meet their needs. These circumstances arise from the preplacement history of these children and from within the dual systems of foster care and publicly funded health care to which responsibility for their well-being is assigned. BACKGROUND Children enter foster care because their parents are unwilling or unable to provide for their physical and emotional needs. Most often, these children come from single-parent households where poverty, lack of formal education, and absence of social support contribute to inadequate and inappropriate child care. More than 80% of the children have experienced physical or sexual abuse and/or neglect. Their previous health care is likely to have been fragmented. As a consequence, foster children are likely to have unrecognized or untreated chronic disorders, a high rate of emotional and developmental problems, and impaired school performance. Placement of children into foster care is ordinarily a court-ordered process used when the application of resources by social service agencies fail to, or appear unlikely to, improve a home situation deemed detrimental to the children's well-being. Foster care is intended to be a planned temporary service designed to strengthen families and to enhance the quality of life for children. The imposed separation of children from parents is a decision intended to be based on the best interests of the children. It is to be an opportunity for families to receive the social support and counsel they require to be reconstituted.

“The right of the state to interfere is unquestioned”

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Birk
Keyword(s):  
Child Care ◽  
Foster Care ◽  
Institutional Care ◽  
The State ◽  
Dependent Child ◽  
Dependent Children ◽  
The Right

This chapter examines efforts to remedy the problems with farm placements. It looks at the state boards of charity, visiting agents, and courts as examples of methods used to improve placing out. As the state boards worked to legitimize their expertise and county officials tried to improve the care given to dependent children, work remained to standardize care and encourage placements. State boards recommended a second initiative in addition to better oversight of institutional care to secure more placement homes and supervision for children: hiring state visiting agents to supervise placed-out children. This chapter explores how the two-pronged issue of mistreatment of children in placement homes and the resulting efforts to increase supervision ultimately forced placers and visitors to make a number of proposals, including a return of direct aid and more involvement by the courts. It also considers the rise in paid foster care and how it affected all facets of dependent child care.

scholarly journals FOSTERING BY CAREGIVERS WITH NO COMMON-LAW DUTY OF SUPPORT: AT LAST, SOME CLARITY IN THE LAW SS v Presiding Officer, Children’s Court, Krugersdorp 2012 (6) SA 45 (GSJ)

Obiter ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
F Noel Zaal
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Extended Family ◽  
Foster Parent ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
Substitute Care ◽  
Parent Status ◽  
Aids Pandemic ◽  
Biological Parents ◽  
Children's Court ◽  
Children’S Court

Some serious shortcomings in foster care law which adversely affected large numbers of children have been addressed recently in SS v Presiding Officer, Children’s Court, Krugersdorp (2012 (6) SA 45 (GSJ), hereinafter SS) and Manana v Presiding Officer, Children’s Court, Krugersdorp (SAFLI I (A3075/2011) [2013] ZAGPJHC 64 (12 April 2013), hereinafter Manana). For reasons of scope, and because the issues were somewhat different, the discussion below primarily offers an analysis of the former judgment. As will be seen, SS provided the first reported solutions to some severe problems affecting numerous children and is thus worthy of consideration in its own right. By way of background, one consequence of the AIDS pandemic in South Africa is that many children are left to be nurtured by extended family members or non-relatives, rather than by biological parents. Substitute caregivers often have limited financial means and apply to children’s courts to be designated as foster parents. Where they are successful they become eligible for monthly fostercare grants paid by the state. The best available legal ground for many foster-parent applications is contained in section 150(1)(a) of the Children’s Act 38 of 2005 (the “Act”). Unfortunately, this provision has proved difficult for children’s courts to interpret. It sets as a ground for a child being “in need of care and protection” and thus eligible for foster care: “if, the child has been abandoned or orphaned and is without any visible means of support”. One uncertainty has been whether a child can be found to be abandoned in terms of this provision if currently receiving substitute care volunteered by a caregiver who has already replaced a parent. The phrase “without any visible means of support” has also been difficult tointerpret. It is unfortunate that in selecting this phrase the legislature relied on a vague, centuries-old description by English vagrancy law. Children’s court magistrates have understandably varied in their interpretations of section 150(1)(a). This has led to discrepancies in its application. A negative consequence has been that impoverished carers whose nurturing skills render them suitable parent substitutes sometimes fail in attempts to achieve foster-parent status. Vulnerable abandoned and orphaned children are then left with neither foster-care grants nor caregivers who can properly exercise parental responsibilities. This unfortunate situation, which is obviously not inthe best interests of children, has been a major concern for the department of social development. In SS, Saldulker J provided the first reported interpretation of section 150(1)(a). It will be shown that, although some issues were insufficiently dealt with, the judgment has brought much-needed clarity on several crucial aspects of foster-grant eligibility. It has also provided guidelines for eligibilityof foster-parent applicants who do not have a maintenance obligation in respect of the child. It has additionally provided directions for practitioners (particularly children's court magistrates and social workers) on evidence requirements and stages of proceedings in foster-care applications.

Epilogue

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Birk
Keyword(s):  
Child Care ◽  
Foster Care ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Progressive Era ◽  
Foster Children ◽  
Foster Parents ◽  
Family Preservation ◽  
Dependent Child ◽  
Care Policy ◽  
Child Welfare Policy

This epilogue examines how changes in child welfare policy were affected by the decline of the farm home as a symbol of American prosperity, the appropriate levels of work and education for children, the expense of placement, the problems with supervision, and efforts at family preservation. It explains how the decisions made during the Progressive Era to rationalize, study, centralize, and professionalize institutionalization and placement permanently altered the methods of care for dependent children throughout the country. It suggests that the farm placement system changed in part because the farm itself was in transition, and that foster care was also unsuccessful in ways similar to the practice it was purported to replace. Finally, it considers problems with dependent child care policy that persist until today, in which foster children are trapped in a web of bureaucracy that undermines conscientious foster parents from being able to parent.

Foster Care—In Whose Best Interest?

1973 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 599-638 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Mnookin
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Juvenile Court ◽  
The State ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
Best Interest ◽  
Stable Environment ◽  
Legal Standard ◽  
Poor Families ◽  
Case Basis ◽  
Court Process

Under existing law, judges have wide discretionary authority to remove "neglected"children from their natural parents and place them in state-controlled foster care. The children are for the most part from poor families. The author describes the process by which the state can coercively remove children from their parents, and he analyzes the best interests of the child test, the legal standard courts usually employ to decide whether a neglected child should be removed from parental custody. He suggests that this standard requires predictions that cannot be made on a case by case basis and necessarily gives individual judges too much discretion to impose their own values in deciding what is best for a child. While critical of the procedural informality of the current juvenile court process, he believes additional procedural safeguards for children and their parents are in themselves unlikely to remedy the situation. He goes on to propose a new standard to limit removal to cases where there is an immediate and substantial danger to the child's health and where there are no reasonable means of protecting the child at home. In addition, a standard is proposed to ensure that prompt steps are taken to provide children who must be removed with a stable environment.

Alternative Care Mechanisms in Jharkhand: Analysing the Implementation Barriers; Its Potential to Prevent Family Separation and Strengthening Family-based Care of Vulnerable Children in Jharkhand

2021 ◽  
pp. 234930032110211
Author(s):  
Sumantra Mukherjee ◽  
Subhadeep Adhikary ◽  
Neepa Basu
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Institutional Care ◽  
Care Program ◽  
The State ◽  
Implementation Barriers ◽  
Current Form ◽  
Family Separation ◽  
Alternative Care ◽  
Care Guidelines ◽  
Family Based

The required operational framework of a community-based care mechanism as envisaged under the Revised Integrated Child Protection Scheme and the National Plan of Action for Children 2016, fails to both prevent and effectively respond to the vulnerabilities of children in need of care and protection. Resonance of such unplanned community programming shifts the focus towards institutionalisation of children, thus grossly violating ‘institutionalization as a measure of last resort’, one of the fundamental principles governing the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015. The act critically justifies the need to empower vulnerable families to care for children and re-emphasises the preventive role in ensuring family-based care or keep children in alternative care setting. The alternative care (sponsorship and foster care) guidelines in Jharkhand was launched in 2018. Since then, it has been found that the state is struggling to implement it. Though there has been some progress in the sponsorship scheme implementation, the kinship and foster care remains completely neglected. Child in Need Institute (CINI) is partnering with Hope & Homes for Children (HHC) since 2017 for pushing the agenda for deinstitutionalisation of children through a two-pronged approach of model creation and district-level technical support to the ICPS system. Working closely in the communities in preventing family separation, led to the understanding that there is a huge need to address the structural gaps for implementing the alternative care guidelines in true spirit. The purpose of the article is to do a systematic analysis of the implementation of the alternative care guidelines in the state and map out the implementation bottlenecks/barriers (systemic, structural and operational), hindering its smooth implementation. Besides that, the article will also try to establish a causal linkage between implementation of alternative care guidelines and dependency on institutional care, thus reflecting the potential of such mechanisms in promoting deinstitutionalisation. The research methodology will be a mix of qualitative and quantitative tools. Tools like content analysis of the key informants’ interviews and case studies will be used to understand the implementation barriers. A quantitative analysis of the secondary data on sponsorship scheme implementation will be done to analyse the gaps. Besides that, the experiences of children and their parents who have been linked with alternative care will also be analysed. District stakeholder consultations in 2 districts will be done to enlist the recommendations for the state. Thus, the key research question that would guide this article are: (a) What are the barriers to implementation of the alternative care program in its current form? and (b) What are the changes that should be made in the guidelines and its implementation process? The article will thus be an advocacy tool for influencing the state government for enhanced priority and investments in alternative care program and reduced focus on institutional care.

scholarly journals Coping with Adversity in the Lives of Children in Foster Care

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viola Tamášová ◽  
Silvia Barnová
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Foster Children ◽  
Foster Parents ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Semantic Categories ◽  
Children In Foster Care ◽  
Biological Parents ◽  
Biological Children ◽  
The Family ◽  
Biological Parenthood

Abstract Introduction:The theoretical-empirical study is based on two particular case studies of families bringing up children from institutional care. It deals with the real needs of foster families, with the foster parents’ perception of fostering and their experiences from the time spent with children in foster care, about the children’s behaviour in adverse situations, which the foster parents must deal with in the period of the child’s adaptation to the new environment of their households. The authors accentuate the importance of communication and emotional education from the aspect of personality development of children placed into new families. These children should be prepared for moving from a known into an unknown environment. In the conclusions, the authors give several specific recommendations within the framework of semantic categories dealt with in the chapters and subchapters of the study. Methods:The study is based on a theoretical analysis of the presented issues. For the purposes of the research, the following research methods were used - Content analysis of official documents (job description of social workers in foster family care). - Case studies of two clients of the offices of Social and Legal Protection of Children and Social Curatorship in the field offices of Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family in Nitra and Bratislava Self-Governing Regions carried out in 2018. - Logical operations - analysis, synthesis, comparison. - Interviews with foster carers (Family 1 and Family 2) carried out throughout the whole year 2018. - Generalization in semantic categories which, at the same time, are the titles of the chapters and subchapters bellow, and also in the conclusions and recommendations for foster care and the social practice. Results:For personal development, children need relationships with others. Maternal and paternal love, and care are the basic elements of these relationships - as confirmed in the interviews with foster parents. Alongside with biological parenthood, the so-called “psychological parenthood” has an important role to play. The role of a psychological parent can be filled by the members of own (i.e. biological) family as well as by adoptive parents, foster parents, the biological parents’ partners (stepmothers and stepfathers) and - under certain conditions - also by personnel in facilities of social care. Their psychological needs and the extent of their satisfaction determine what they will experience and how they will feel. Discussion:It is important to prepare parents to accept the fact that foster parenthood is different from biological parenthood. Prospective foster parents often come to the offices of Social and Legal Protection of Children and Social Curatorship with the opinion that not even biological parents are being prepared for their parental roles. Foster parents already having biological children argue - as it follows from the interviews carried out throughout the research - that they are experienced parents and, so, they can bring up foster children as well. They do not realize that foster children bring something new that biological children have never experienced. Biological and foster parenthood are definitely not the same. Conclusions:In the conclusions, the authors point out that children in foster care identify with their parents’ values and opinions. For children who have faced significant adversity in their lives, it is beneficial if the family environment and education are harmonious. Such good conditions can have a positive impact on the children’s entire future lives. In the process of adaptation, the whole network of relationships within the family must be re-structuralized, which requires well-prepared family members.

Screening Potential Parents

2019 ◽  
pp. 154-170
Author(s):  
James G. Dwyer
Keyword(s):  
Family Relationships ◽  
Good Reason ◽  
Family Relationship ◽  
The State ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
Birth Parents ◽  
Biological Parents ◽  
Normative Argument ◽  
Parent Child Relationships ◽  
State Creation

The state scrutinizes potential parents with some rigor in the context of adoption, and with good reason. There is no justification for not doing so as well in choosing a newborn child’s first legal parents. This chapter describes nascent efforts to identify unfit biological parents at the time of birth, before they assume custody and subject a child to maltreatment—specifically, toxicology testing of newborns and examination of birth parents’ child-maltreatment history. The chapter then provides a theoretical normative argument for further developing such efforts. It analogizes state creation of legal parent-child relationships to state creation of legal family relationships between adults (i.e., marriage). It explains that parentage law can and should imitate marriage law in one crucial respect—namely, requiring a mutuality of consent between the two parties, with the state serving as an agent for the child in consenting to (or rejecting) a family relationship with particular adults based on its best judgment as to whether forming a legal family with those adults is in the child’s best interests all things considered.

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