Non-relative family foster care in Spain: Practice and outcomes assessment.

Family foster care must be given priority in out-of-home placement decisions involving minors who need to be separated from their family for their own protection. In Spain, this alternative has only been possible for the past twenty years. To date there are practically no data available about the extent of its implementation and characteristics in the case of nonrelative foster care, though there are several research studies about kinship care. The paper discusses the most relevant data in order to depict –for the first time in scientific literature– the practice of non-relative foster care in Spain. For this purpose, we study a sample of 357 cases encompassing six representative Autonomous Communities. We also presents children’s profiles, birth and foster families’ characteristics, information about the fostering process and some results based on a subsample of closed cases (n = 179). Some important features such as the long stay periods and stability of placements, which differentiates them from foster care practice in other countries, are also analysed