Family and Child Welfare

Family and Child Welfare 3 (3+0)

Lesson 26 : Foster Care Services for Children

Principles of Fostering

Certain generalizations or principles underlie foster care practice today are:

1. The parent-child relationship and ade­quate parenting are of utmost importance to the child. Society's first responsibility is to try to preserve the child's own home through the ex tension of social services and basic social se­curity measures.
2. If at least minimally adequate parental care is lacking and cannot be restored to a level which will protect children, substitute parenting arrangements and the socializing experiences a family normally provides must be furnished for them outside their own homes.
3. Different foster care settings -foster homes, group homes, and institutions have different potential capabilities. No one setting is necessarily the best placement for all children needing care. A placement choice is determined by a particular child's needs, the characteristics of the settings which are available. and their capacities to adapt to the child's needs.
4. Because complex roles and relation­ships must be managed within the foster care system, the characteristics of the foster care set· ting and the abilities of the caretakers must go beyond the attributes of what may be accept­able as long as the children remain in their own homes.
5. Special consideration must be given to the rights of children when decisions are made which are crucial to their future. At the same time, a balance is required in attention to the rights of children, their parents, their agency and the foster parents or other caretakers.