Background to the Research

• The aim of this study, which was part of the DHSS commissioned research project on long-term foster care, was to examine planned, long-term foster placements by focusing on the processes involved, the complex interactions within the households, and to determine the meaning of the placements to the individuals involved. This paper focused on the aspirations and experiences of foster carers.

Research Approach

• Information was based on investigating 19 planned long-term foster placements for children aged between four and eleven years old with non-relatives. This involved 16 foster homes from 10 Units of Management across the four Health and Social Service Boards and both social workers and foster parents were included in the study.
  

Main Findings

Foster Parents

• The social and family backgrounds of the foster parents were very similar to one another. The foster fathers tended to have low levels of educational attainment and were employed in blue-collar work. For the most part, the foster parents were involved in long-term marriages, were experienced parents with the wives not working outside of the home and were owner occupiers.
• The key motivation reported by the foster mothers for wishing to foster was a love for children, a desire to help less fortunate children and wanting to continue parenting. They did not report being motivated by the desire to work with the parents of children in care, to be part of a team providing social service, or to be part of the social services' wider realm of concern.

Early Months of Placement

• The majority of the foster parents intended for the placements to last for at least four years, or until the child was eighteen years. After the first meeting at four months, the key theme of the feelings expressed was a love for the foster children, and a general low opinion of the child's natural parents.
• The majority of foster mothers saw themselves as taking the role of 'mother' or 'adopted mother', as opposed to that of 'an aunt' or a 'caretaker'.

Placements in Progress

• After the first year of placement, the predominant feeling expressed by the foster parents was satisfaction in the way the foster children had progressed during the placement. This was judged in terms of everyday behaviours being viewed as positive and behavioural problems having become manageable.
• Despite this only a few said they would encourage others to foster children as they had done. Further, many of the foster parents ideals of parenting were not fulfilled by the placements, due to the children's continuing attachments and loyalties to their natural families.

Placement Breakdown

• Of the 19 placements, five broke down in the two year period, and four of those in the first year of placement. This followed the pattern established in other UK studies. Where placements broke down, there were clear family tensions which led to crisis situations involving the foster child and made the placement untenable.
• Two factors were linked to breakdown: where the wellbeing of the foster parents own children was being compromised; where the challenging behaviour of the foster child showed no signs at all of changing. Interviews at four months suggested that foster parents were already aware of the likelihood of a breakdown.