Summary of results

Topic
Placing a child or an adolescent in a residential care facility or in a foster family affects the target family fundamentally. Professionals in charge of planning and executing extra familial placements bear high responsibility, whatever the reasons for these measures may be. Some children are in need of specialised education, others have to be protected from neglect or abuse by family members. The placement may also result from a criminal offence.

In Switzerland there are no regulations on how to initiate an extra familial placement, on the professional qualifications of the executing staff or the instruments that are to be used in planning the helping process. According to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the opinion of a child has to be taken into account in any important matter affecting the child. It is unclear, however, what that means in case of a placement in a foster family or a residential home. Parents’ and children’s participation in the decision and implementation of extra familial placements improve the chance of finding sustainable solutions that promote the development of children, scientific research has documented. So far we know little of how families and professionals cooperate in executing a placement. Therefore the study aimed to clarify the thought processes and actions of the people involved. It wanted to show how decisions between foster families and residential homes were taken, to what degree parents and children were content with their opportunity to participate and the effects, on the family members, of the measures taken.

Method used
This longitudinal study involved the placement of 43 children and adolescents living mainly in the cantons of Zurich, St.Gallen and Thurgau. 14 girls and 29 boys were concerned, 9 of whom were transferred to foster families and 34 to residential homes. The persons involved were interviewed three times, where possible: shortly before placement, approximately 6 and 13 months thereafter. The total included 83 interviews with parents, 91 with children or adolescents, 87 with social workers (or other professionals performing similar tasks), 60 with employees of residential homes and 16 with foster parents. All 337 taped interviews were transcribed and evaluated together with data gathered from tests and questionnaires.

Main Results
Although the social workers, parents, sometimes the children and other specialists discussed the impending placements intensely they still disagreed on many important points. Two thirds of the parents mentioned child related problems as the main reason for the placement while only about half of the professionals held the same opinion. The parents also estimated the strain the young people were exposed to before placement to be considerably smaller than did the professionals. This could have caused conflicts, and yet parents were rarely dissatisfied with the professionals.

Most social workers were very keen to involve the parents in their reasoning about the importance of the placement. They tried to gain the parents’ approval for a specific residential home or a foster family. The participation of children was of far less concern to the social workers. The positive experiences of parents with professionals at most times should not hide the fact that some placements of children were administered against fierce opposition of parents and children and resulted in anger and great distress.

The most serious problems experienced day-to-day by the social worker were the complexity of family problems, the limited availability of places in foster families and homes, time constraints and problems of cooperation with family members. To bear responsibility for the well-being of the child and to decide between the sometimes irreconcilable interests of the stakeholders was a major challenge for the professionals.

After a year in extra familial care children and adolescents judged their placements to be considerably less successful than did their parents, the social workers and the employees of residential homes and the foster parents. In contrast, the interviewed persons considered the placement equally successful whether it took place in a residential home or in a foster family, whether the placement was initiated by a juvenile court or took place for other reasons. Contrary to former research, the placements in this study were not more effective when parents and children participated more in the process nor when they were more satisfied with their opportunities to participate.

Recommendations
- Government agencies should provide a mandatory framework for the planning of an extra familial placement and guarantee the quality assurance. In each case (at least) two professionals are to be involved.

- The responsibility for placing children in residential homes and foster families should be assigned to trained social workers only. Their further education and professional support should be enhanced by competence centres, interpreter services and approved instruments.

- There has to be a sufficient number of part-time and full-time places in residential homes and foster families available to comply with the differing needs of children and adolescents.

- The public and professional understanding of the children’s rights of participation must be enhanced.

- A statistical database of the extra familial placements in Switzerland has to be generated as a prerequisite to the planning and control of residential provision for young people.

Further informations about the project

Placing children and young people into foster care and group homes is a serious intervention into family autonomy and the lives of the affected children. Out-of-home placement is usually the result of an acute, pressing problem that demands rapid action. This research project is analysing the decision-making process that initiates out-of-home care, the satisfaction of the different parties involved and the consequences of state measures on the well-being of affected children and their families.

Background
Despite the farreaching human, legal and financial consequences of placing children in out-of-home care, there are few binding procedural rules, or guidelines for client involvement, for the planning and carrying out of this measure. This means that the responsible agents have to rely heavily on practical experience. In view of the drastic consequences of the decisions, this is a major deficit that the project intends to rectify.

Objectives
The goal of the study is to identify thinking and action patterns in the people involved in the placement process. The aim is to reveal important mechanisms in the selection of the type of placement and to identify the decision criteria used when choosing between foster home and group home. At the same time, the study aims to show the possibilities for and limits of involving the people affected as well as the resulting consequences for out-of-home placement and for the family system.

Methods/approach
The project is a longitudinal study, with the data gathered at three time points:
a) shortly before placement (while cases are being processed)
b) 3 months after a child has been placed in out-of-home care
c) 12 months after a child has been placed in out-of-home care.
Interviews will be conducted with fifty families (children, parents, and possibly siblings and other family members) that have a child being placed in out-of-home care for the first time and with the professionals and people involved (social workers, foster parents, staff of group homes). In addition to guided interviews, the participants will be administered a standardised quantitative instrument (SEF) and a projective test (Family System Test).

Significance
The study will yield information on the strengths and weaknesses of decision-making processes connected with out-of-home care, the available personnel and structural resources and the effects of state measures on the well-being of children and their families. Based on the findings, recommendations will be derived regarding services needed, training of professionals, legal standards and opportunities for agency-client cooperation.

Duration 01.05.03-30.06.06

Grant CHF 393 721

Proposal no.: 405240-69000

Dr. Kurt Huwiler
Stiftung Zürcher Kinder- und Jugendheime
Obstgartensteig 4
Postfach
8035 Zürich
Tel. 043 / 255 14 76
Fax 043 / 255 14 77
E-Mail kurt.huwiler@zkj.ch  

Barbara Raulf
Pflegekinder-Aktion Schweiz, Fachstelle für das Pflegekinderwesen
Bederstrasse 105a
8002 Zürich
Tel. 01 205 50 40/43
Fax 01 205 59 45
E-Mail barbara.rauf@pflegekinder.ch  

Dr. Hannes Tanner
Bildungsdirektion des Kantons Zürich
Fachstelle für Schulbeurteilung
Ausstellungsstrasse 80
8090 Zürich
Tel. 043 259 78 75
Fax 043 259 78 79
E-Mail hannes.tanner@fsb.zh.ch  

Third party funding
Stiftung Zürcher Kinder- und Jugendheime CHF 96 750
Pflegekinder-Aktion Schweiz CHF 22 150
University of Applied Sciences, Eastern Switzerland, St. Gallen CHF 33 210
Jugendstaatsanwaltschaft des Kantons Zürich CHF 3 9 809

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