Placement breakdown was an experience characterized by its suddenness and unplanned nature – beginning and often ending with a lack of planning. Bombach, Clara, 2016. A disruption can also happen when Children’s Social Care feel the placement is no longer meeting the child’s needs or you decide that you are no longer able to care for a child or the child decides they do not want to stay in the placement. In this study, we carried out deep interviews with foster parents to understand how they experienced placement breakdown (phenomenology) and how they make sense of and apply meaning (interpretation) to their experience. A review of the literature has shown that placement breakdown is a frequently occurring phenomenon, occurring in between 20–40 percent of placements (Egelund, 2006; Oosterman et al., 2007). The motives of foster parents, their family and work circumstances, Foster parent perceptions of placement breakdown, The challenge of assessing credibility when the alleged victims have intellectual disabilities, Arranging stability for children in long-term out-of-home care, Foster carer strain and its impact on parenting and placement outcomes for adolescents, Breakdown of foster care placement: Carer perspectives and system factors, Adolescents’ perspective on placement moves and congregate settings: Complex and cumulative instabilities in out-of-home care, In and out of care: A profile and analysis of children in the out-of-home care system in Sweden, Giving voice and making sense in interpretative phenomenological analysis, Children and youth in foster care: Disentangling the relationship between problem behaviours and number of placements, Disruptions in foster care: A review and meta-analysis, Placement and permanency outcomes for children in out-of-home care by prior inpatient mental health treatment, Child protection, permanency planning and children’s right to family life, A shared experience of fragmentation: Making sense of foster placement breakdown, Breakdown of teenage placements in Swedish foster and residential care, Placement disruption in treatment foster care, Research on placement moves: Seeking the perspective of foster children, Into adulthood: A follow-up study of 718 young people who were placed in out-of-home care during their teens, Patterns of instability: Moves within the care system, their reasons, context and consequences, Stockholms universitet, institutionen för socialt arbete, The trouble with foster care: The impact of stressful events on foster carers, The road to placement breakdown: Foster parents' experiences of the events surrounding the unexpected ending of a child's placement in their care. Respondents were asked about their thoughts about being foster parents generally and about their experiences of placement breakdown. When a foster care placement comes to an end (reunification or breakdown), CFSS or juvenilejudges decideon the needoffuturehelp. Subsequently, we attempted to identify how foster families who are considered to be at a high risk of placement breakdown could be given effective support. Pre‐service training of foster When children cannot grow up with their parents, society has an overall responsibility for ensuring that they have access to the support and protection they need. Breakdown of foster care placement: carer perspectives and system factors Robyn Gilbertson *Robyn Gilbertson is Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Social Administration and Social Work, Flinders University of South Australia, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, South Australia 5001. Register to receive personalised research and resources by email, Breakdown of foster care placement: carer perspectives and system factors, *Robyn Gilbertson is Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Social Administration and Social Work, Flinders University of South Australia, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, South Australia 5001. I think we had a stable family to offer, a good environment so (…) our own two girls had grown so they could take care of themselves and it felt like I wanted to give more’. Proceedings of The 5th International Conference on New Findings On Humanities and Social Sciences. The method is based on two aims. In Swedish child welfare, the child is at the centre of care planning whereas responsibility for the child is shared between the social services, carers and parents (in so-called three-party parenting). In those cases where breakdown was initiated by social services, the decision to move/return a child was given suddenly – a quick telephone call and the placement ended. ‘The social worker was sitting in some meeting so I left a message saying it was somewhat urgent. View Record in Scopus Google Scholar. Some foster families were so-called specialized foster homes and were formally employed by for-profit care agencies. Research has also shown a connection between placement breakdown and poorer outcomes for children in both the short and long term. This product could help you, Accessing resources off campus can be a challenge. Before the referral to the fostering agency and placement with Ron and Shirley at the age of 12 years, Alan had experienced five foster care placements since being removed from his birth family at the age of seven. While foster carers experience the rewards and challenges of parenting vulnerable and complex adolescents, some of these placements break down. How do they describe the circumstances surrounding placement breakdown? (2004), we have included those placements that end because of a social worker’s displeasure with the placement, the foster parent refuses to continue to provide care, the child runs away or refuses to remain in the placement, or because the parent withdraws consent to placement. Foster parents indicated that they would consider ending a placement if there was a danger to their family, if the child could not adapt to the home or if they could not handle the child's behavior. Frequent moves can badly affect children. ", Foster placement breakdown: What can we learn from foster carers’ stories and how successful is Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care . Although the placement may have ended in breakdown, foster parents described a continuing relationship between their families and child which was of lasting significance. In addition to these quick placements, foster parents describe the problem of not having enough information about the child’s difficulties. It was minimal at best with the only measure offered being a termination meeting with social services. By continuing to browse Even younger children’s behaviour took a toll of foster families: He was feeling terrible in other ways. Bombach, Clara, 2016. ‘So then she went and stayed with her mother and I could leave her there. They described having difficulty establishing and then having very little contact with their social workers. In Sweden, the state’s responsibility for children is subsidiary to the parents’, as long as parents themselves can give their children a good upbringing (Sundell et al., 2007). I mean that might be true but we really called for help’. Care planning that includes the needs of carers for specific supports and relief during a child’s placement. Becoming foster parents was complicated upon the arrival of a foster child into their families. Three of the families describe how the experience of placement was so difficult that they were drained of energy. Before going on to explore the consequences of this it is interesting to note some of the reasons that may lead to an abrupt end to a foster care placement: Reasons for Placement Breakdown: Research from the Social Care Institute for Excellence, ‘’Fostering Placement Stability” suggests five factors that appear to cause frequent placement moves: a change of social worker, i.e. ‘It was so difficult and I was so tired and finished because he took so much of my strength and energy all the time (…) so one day after I had taken him to school I just broke down’ or ‘We didn’t get any help from anywhere and (…) when he tried to kill himself for the third time in a week it was just too much’. The foster parents in our study, however, describe aggression and emotionally labile behaviours from another perspective. How to prevent breakdown of fostering relationships . Members of _ can log in with their society credentials below. Foster care instability may result in consecutive changes in primary caretakers, requiring foster children to adapt to new social and physical environments, such as a new neighborhood and a new school. 301-317. View or download all content the institution has subscribed to. In spite of this study’s limited scope, foster parents are an important source of knowledge about the foster caring experience and the need to improve care provision. The Foster Care Training Hub is part of The Big Initiative which is a multi-agency collaboration bringing together expert practitioners to ... We all begin a new foster placement with high hopes that a “forever” family has been created. She tried to take her life several times and things like that (…) When those people at Child and Youth Psychiatry told me after, that she had tried to take her own life and was in the ER and everything – and that we should keep a close eye on her – an ordinary little family, like we are going to sit awake every night and watch over her the whole time – that’s not going to work either but that’s what they expected us to do. Year: 2020. Placement breakdown significantly increases the chances that a foster parent will decide to end their role as a foster parent (Wilson et al., 2000). Email:, Email: [email protected] Publication date: 01 December 2003 Register . Results of our study demonstrate that breakdown is a complex process rather than a single event – a process that starts in the discrepancy between the statutory obligations of the social services toward the foster home and the foster parents’ perceptions of the kind if information and support they actually receive from the social services. These were her sisters so it was terrible and she felt really bad because she had already experienced difficult separation and she felt like these really were her own sisters’. Foster children with behavioural problems, older foster children, foster children denied treatment, and foster children in care because of sexual abuse were more at risk of breakdown. All had maintained some kind of contact although the relationship clearly had changed. By . ‘We never did have an ending with social services. Sarah Louise Lamswood . Brierley agrees: “Financially, when you consider a children’s home placement costs about £125,000 a year, and a foster placement is about £25,000, this is a very cost-effective solution. Given that teenagers with behaviour problems comprise the largest age group of children in care in Swedish child welfare – and almost 40 percent of their placements end in breakdown – a dialogue needs to take place around how to best meet the needs of children and young people entering into out-of-home care. Satisfaction at getting support quickly did not necessarily mean that a problem was solved quickly or even that the social worker could deal with the situation directly. A child’s problematic behaviour could be used as an explanation for the problem of instability in out-of-home care when it may be a lack of planning on the part of social services that has contributed to the problem. Foster children, foster families, and the child protection system feel the effect of placement breakdown. How do they describe the circumstances surrounding children being placed in their care? I really appreciated that – someone dealing with things when you really need it’. All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Placement Planning meetings should be convened as part of the process of identifying and placing a child - as set out in the Placements in Foster Care Procedure and the Placements in Residential Care Procedure. All respondents had biological children. Rather, their immediate response left a positive feeling in the foster home. FICE International. Few studies have included foster parents; and when they have, the focus has been on foster parents’ view of children’s problems and not on their own experiences of breakdown (Brown and Bednar, 2006). Placement breakdown is defined as the placement not lasting as long as planned; placement moves are planned. ‘I don’t go around talking about it with anyone but it can be tough and I can’t say that we’ve had any help with it’. You can be signed in via any or all of the methods shown below at the same time. Several families described how a child is always welcome to visit them and that one child requested to remain in contact after a breakdown. ‘She did go to CYP a few times but CYP said that she was doing too poorly and was too unstable to continue there and with that my contact with CYP ended too. In this sense, a failure to attend to structural problems may lead to children being even more marginalized in the care system. Our focus is thus on the meaning that our respondents give to events preceding and surrounding placement breakdown rather than on risk factors associated with this phenomenon. The email address and/or password entered does not match our records, please check and try again. This is remarkable, as not only Rock et al., but also Winokur et al. Although research has pointed to the many problems associated with placement instability and breakdown, less is known about foster parents’ experiences. Although studies of placement breakdown are numerous, they have often focused on its frequency, risk factors or causes and consequences to children. This article is more than 6 years old. I even had my own phone number to the police so that I really could get through to them’. Placements of children and young people may be in either foster care or institutional settings although most, regardless of age, are placed in foster care settings. Foster-placement stability and the formation of trust and healthy attachment with adult care-givers are crucial for the development and well-being of foster children (Newton et al., 2000). While the overall numbers of children in care have varied over the years, the use of care placements have been a stable part of the child welfare system since its foundation. Christiansen et al., 2010) which indicates that the success of the mission of a foster parent is made possible through the provision of information and support about the child and the foster parent role, having a good relationship to a social worker, and receiving individualized support at the right times. ‘That was the problem all these years that she wouldn’t leave them in peace. In: 33rd FICE Congress and 2nd CYC World Conference, Vienna, Austria, 22-25 August 2016. Dozier, 2005 . They construed breakdown as an They didn’t have time. About stability Stability means ensuring that every child in care is found the right placement as soon as possible. I have read and accept the terms and conditions, View permissions information for this article. This may leave the child at risk of rejection and may result in a child re-living the same kinds of problems experienced in their families of origin. ‘It started having an effect on our own child. Foster carers grieve the loss of a foster child through placement breakdown in a similar manner to grieving the death of a loved one. The law is goal oriented (Andersson, 2001) and states that the Social Welfare Board should, ‘on the bases of democracy and solidarity… work to ensure that children and youth grow up in a safe environment’ (SoL chapter 5 § 1). Processes leading to foster care placement breakdown in Switzerland. Parents described with dissatisfaction the level of support they received after placement.... In total, eight foster parents equally abruptly will open in a new tab care under LVU parents... Fice Congress and 2nd CYC World Conference, Vienna, Austria, 22-25 August 2016 want to take children! Notice if they feel they can ’ t always work smoothly had some. 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