Strengthening Kinship Placements in Foster Care
This project explores the experiences and needs of foster children, their parents, foster carers and foster care professionals during kinship placements.
When a child is placed in foster care, preference is given to placement within their family or social network. Family relationships can provide particular strength and resilience in kinship foster care. “Family is worth fighting for,” as one foster care professional puts it. Kinship foster care is therefore a promising form of foster care in terms of stability and familiarity for the child.
However, kinship placements can also create challenges. Intergenerational family relationships may lead to conflicts, heightened emotions, and specific tensions. These can present significant challenges for the foster care professionals involved. In addition, current foster care practices are often designed around non-kinship foster care, where children are placed with previously unknown foster carers, even though approximately forty percent of foster care placements are within the child’s family.
Objective
This project explores the experiences and needs of foster children, their parents, foster carers and foster care professionals during kinship placements. Based on this knowledge, a toolkit will be developed to help foster care professionals better tailor their support and make kinship placements more sustainable.
The central research question is: How can foster care professionals support foster children, foster carers, parents and other family members during kinship placements in ways that strengthen relationships and allow children to maintain loyalty towards all family members who are important to them?
Method
This qualitative research project consists of three phases:
Phase 1: Exploring how foster children, foster carers and parents experience their relationships and loyalties through photovoice, a method in which participants take their own photographs, and interviews.
Phase 2: Using interviews, WhatsApp conversations and focus groups to explore the support needs of foster children, parents, foster carers, foster carers’ own children and foster care professionals.
Phase 3: Based on the knowledge gathered during the previous phases, support materials will be designed for foster care professionals, foster carers, parents and children to strengthen kinship placements.
Results
The main outcome of the project will be support materials for foster care professionals, children and family members involved in kinship placements. These may include practical exercises, films, training materials and conversation tools. The project will also produce a report, a factsheet and one or more scientific articles.
Duration
The project runs from January 2025 to December 2026.
Collaboration
For this project the research group Transforming Youth Care at THUAS collaborates with:
- Christian University of Applied Sciences Ede
- HAN University of Applied Sciences
- Jeugdformaat
- The Salvation Army Central Netherlands
- Entrea Lindenhout
- University of Groningen
- Erasmus University Rotterdam
- Gent University
- Netherlands Youth Institute
- Dutch Association for Foster Families
- Pleegzorg.nl
- Municipality of Nijkerk
- Foundation for the Representation of Foster Grandparents in the Netherlands
- William Schrikker Family-Based Care
Contact
Anne Steenbakkers
[email protected]