Tymczasowość rodzinnych form pieczy zastępczej w świetle wyników badań empirycznych

Abstract

If a family is not able to provide the necessary care for the child, he or she is placed outside the family. The purpose of such an action, however, should be the child’s return to his or her family environment as foster care is auxiliary to the natural and primary form of custody provided by biological parents. The principle of the temporary nature of foster care was formulated in the provisions of the Act of 9 June 2011 on Family Support and Foster Care. Pursuant to this act, upon the expiry of 18 months from the day when the child was placed in foster care, the family court at the request of the entity organising foster care should issue a decision concerning the child in order to determine the child’s legal situation. This article aims to present the results of the studies carried out between March and September 2020 as part of the research project ‘The temporary nature of family foster care’. It sought to verify compliance with the principle of the temporary nature of family foster care. The project involved interviews with foster parents, foster children and experts (family judges, social workers from Social Welfare Centres (OPS) and Poviat Family Support Centres (PCPR), employees of adoption centres and foster care centres as well as professional court-appointed guardians). The article is based on the conclusions drawn from 34 interviews with foster parents representing different forms of family foster care (kinship foster families; professional, non-professional, and specialized foster families; emergency family shelters, and family-run children’s homes).