Quel est l’impact du placement intrafamilial sur l’état psychologique des enfants par rapport au placement en famille sélectionnée par les services de placement ?

Abstract

In the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, although the policy is to favour family placement, out of the 7500 children in care, 3500 children are placed in institutions and 3500 children are placed in foster care, of which only 2000 are followed by a foster care service. There are three types of foster care: intra-family care (in the family with a family relationship with the child), families known as the “extended network” (close to the child or to unrelated parents) and selected families (unknown to the child). The purpose of this article is to identify whether the type of placement influences the psychological state of the children, the quality of the child–host relationship, and the prospects for reintegration into the family of origin. This research was conducted in different placement services in the Walloon-Brussels Federation (French-speaking part of Belgium). We collected data for 572 children (i.e. 30% of the children followed by a foster care service) by questioning the social workers working within the foster care services. Our results show that the children placed in selected families (31%) in our sample are considered by the workers to be doing slightly better than those placed in an intra-family or “extended network” families. In addition, 42% of intra-family placements receive little formal follow-up by services, which intervene mainly in crisis situations. Therefore, the results of our study recommend that intrafamily placements be subject to a structured assessment and more systematic and regular follow-up by foster care services as soon as they become aware of the placement.