Uninformed, Afraid and Confused: What Children Need to Know at the Beginning of Their Foster Care Process

This article focuses on the information that children need to be given when they are moving to a fostering placement. Generally, children are not consulted or informed prior to the foster decisions being made, nor when they arrive at the placement. Therefore, they do not usually know their foster care situation and the changes it implies for their lives. The literature available shows that informing children is the first step in enabling them to participate in their own fostering process. Participation empowers them and endorses successful intervention. In order to understand which information is crucial for children's wellbeing and adaption to this initial fostering experience, a qualitative research study was carried out. The study was developed in Spain and it used focus groups and interviews as instruments to gather information. The sample was composed of 30 fostered children, 42 parents, and 63 child care professionals. The results show the importance of sharing five essential aspects with children: (a) the real reasons for family separation; (b) the intervention which took place before removing them from their home; (c) their rights as fostered children; (d) the characteristics of the foster placement; (e) the visitation schedule. It helps children to cope with their new situation by empowering them and making them more adaptive to face all of the changes which are coming. Finally, some good practice tips for professional were also stated in order to improve the information sharing experience.This study has been developed by GRISIJ Research Group for Social and Educational Interventions in Child and Youth (2017SGR905), and financed by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (RTI2018-099305-B-C21), Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (EDU2014-52921-C2-1-R) and Ministry of Science and Innovation (EDU2011-00144-C02-01) of Spanish Government