Support to children in out-of-home care : A qualitative study of support and aid for a successful foster home placement

Foster care is the most common form of out-of-home care for children in Sweden. Previous research points out a lack of knowledge in the area and the need for investigations with focus on support offered by the social worker to children as well as both foster carers and birth parents. The objective of this study is to understand how the social worker reason and act to give support to foster carers, biological parents and children in out of home care to promote a successful placement and avoid unexpected placement breakdown. A qualitative study based on interviews with eight social workers active in foster care placements was undertaken to investigate the questions at issue. The results show that the social worker has the long-term perspective and support the relations and the network around the child with that focus. The relation and the cooperation between foster carers, biological parents and the social worker are seen as important aspects for success. Two areas of improvements are identified in the study. First, the social workers see the child’s relation to its biological parents as an area where support may be more challenging, and they indicate areas of improvement related to strategies for support of the biological parents. Secondly, the social workers are aware of the need to support the child in their schoolwork, as pointed out by previous research, but the implementation of support in this area varies significantly between different municipalities