What do childcare professionals agree on when they propose non-kin foster care?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Decision-making around foster care is a highly complex process, both because of the nature of the issues to be decided and because of the positive or negative implications it may have, mainly on the lives of the children, but also for foster carers and birth families. To focus research on decision-making is to go to the core of the child protection system. The aim of this article is to analyse the factors that intervene in decision-making by childcare professionals regarding non-kin foster care in the north-east of Spain, given that three services intervene throughout this process for the same child. Moreover, coincidences and discrepancies in the weight given to the factors involved in the decision-making process have been analysed. Firstly, we analysed 90 cases of children in foster care assessed by the three services involved, and secondly, we obtained the evaluation made by 57 professionals from 28 childcare teams on general aspects of decision-making. The results highlight how the child’s young age and the likelihood of the birth parents not recovering are factors that play an important role in the decision to propose foster care, thus opening the debate on the current role of foster care within the care system.