- General principles of fostering
In certain cases, minors cannot live with their biological families due to various problems that place them at risk or in neglect if they remain together. Fostering is a protective measure applied to these minors who must be separated temporarily or permanently from their parents or guardians. Fostering can be residential or family-based.
Family fostering, as opposed to residential fostering, involves the cohabitation and integration of a child or adolescent in a family, either temporarily or permanently.
Family fostering is a measure of protection in solidarity with children and their biological families, avoiding placement in child protection centers, offering the possibility to develop in the best possible environment to grow and maintain bonds with their parents and siblings.
1. General principles of fostering
2. Objectives of fosteringGENERAL PRINCIPLES OF FOSTERING
Who can foster?
Single or two-parent families, or those with other structures, regardless of age, gender, or marital status, willing to offer a stable and affectionate environment to the child. Families or individuals who feel committed to the well-being of children, have thought about fostering, and have a personal and socio-family situation that allows them to offer themselves as foster families.
The Administration, as the entity responsible for the minors, has the obligation and responsibility to know the fostering applicant families. Families must have the skills, attitudes, and enthusiasm to deal with certain characteristics of the minors subject to this protective measure, such as deficits in their emotional development, difficulty in social relationships, cognitive difficulties, attachment problems, conduct disorders, ethnic differences, etc.
Additionally, foster families should also have sufficient capabilities to collaborate with the child for reintegration into their biological family. Hence, fostering is a measure of support to the child and their biological family.
Family fostering is not an adoption, nor a step towards it
Family fostering is a protective measure that always seeks the best interest of the child, aiming to promote their development within a family, prioritizing, if possible, reintegration into their family of origin. However, adoption involves breaking the child's ties with their biological family.
Fostering and adoption are different protective measures. People who decide to foster a child should be clear that the foster child will not legally become their child, unless, under certain circumstances, the child is declared adoptable, in which case and pending the suitability declaration for adoption, fostering would end in adoption.
Characteristics of minors eligible for family fostering
For a child to be fostered by a family, the Administration, as the entity responsible for minors, has the duty and responsibility to know the fostering applicant families, who must be aware of the characteristics of these minors who have had a different life experience than other children living with their normalized biological families.
Some of the minors in the protection system have been subject to abandonment, negligence, abuse, or other painful and/or traumatic circumstances. Therefore, they may be children with deficits in their emotional development, difficulty in social relationships, cognitive difficulties, attachment problems, behavior disorders, and ethnic differences, in some cases. Generally, minors in the protection system have additional difficulties due to their life history.
It is important for families to consider the likelihood of these difficulties resulting from the characteristics of protection system minors.
Children and adolescents with more difficulties being fostered
In general, children older than seven years, adolescents and pre-adolescents, sibling groups, and children with special needs: minors with disabilities, behavior problems, chronic or severe health problems, sexual abuse, failures in other family fosterings, are the groups that find more difficulties being fostered.
OBJECTIVES OF FOSTERING
- Provide the child with a normalized, stimulating, safe, and emotionally stable environment that fosters attachment and the repair of any possible damage suffered.
- Allow the harmonious and comprehensive development of the child in an atmosphere of acceptance, protection, and affection, without losing (if possible) the relationship and bond with their biological family.
- Facilitate reference and imitation models.
- Prevent the institutionalization of minors, offering an alternative to residential centers.
- Rights of minors in relation to fostering
The evolution and development of children's rights correspond to the level of societal advancement in terms of human rights and social rights. Legal texts reflect the values of a society at a given time and, in our case, indicate the concept and treatment of minors and young people in each era.
It was at the end of the last century when states began to recognize the existence of specific needs for childhood, that is, the right of every child, by virtue of being a child, to receive attention, prioritizing their rights as individuals.
- Best interest of the child
- Family Cohabitation
- Personal Relationships
- Information
- Hearing
- Individualized Treatment
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1. Best interest of the child
In measures adopted by institutions, public or private, courts or legislative bodies, the best interest of the child will prevail over any other legitimate interest that may apply. Thus, minors will participate, according to their age, maturity, development, and personal evolution, in processes that affect them.
2. Family Cohabitation
Family fostering should take place in a suitable family environment free from violence, prioritizing staying with their family of origin whenever possible and beneficial for the child.
All minors have the right to fully participate in the foster family’s life.
3. Personal Relationships
Minors will have the right to maintain relationships with their family of origin within the framework of the visitation, relationship, and communication arrangements established by the Public Entity, preserving affective ties with their siblings, and for this purpose, Administrations should strive for all siblings to be adopted by the same person or family, and in case of separation, facilitate the relationship between them, if the relationship is desired by the minors and responds to their interest.
Likewise, minors have the right to maintain a relationship with the foster family after the end of the fostering if the Public Entity considers it appropriate to their best interest, and provided they consent: the minor, if mature enough and in any case if over 12 years of age, the foster family, and the biological family or, as the case may be, the adoptive family or permanent foster family.
4. Information
Minors will have the right to address the Public Entity directly, be informed, heard, and listened to throughout the fostering process, taking into account their level of maturity, about the following matters:
- Recognition as a beneficiary of the right to free legal assistance when in a state of neglect.
- Cause of separation from their family, expected duration of the protective measure, and expected timeframe for family reunification.
- Progressive understanding of their socio-familial reality and circumstances to facilitate their acceptance.
- To be informed of any significant event concerning the fostering.
- To receive in advance the information, services, and general support necessary to ensure the rights of minors with disabilities are effective.
- Individualized intervention plan.
- Knowledge of the formalization and termination resolutions of the fostering.
- Rights related to their personal and family circumstances.
- Notify the Prosecutor's Office of any complaints or grievances regarding their fostering circumstances.
- Request information or personally, if mature enough, request the termination of the family fostering.
- Access their file and, where appropriate, know data about their origins and biological relatives, once they reach the age of majority.
All this information will be provided to minors in understandable language, in accessible formats, and adapted to their circumstances.
5. Hearing
Minors will have the right to be heard according to their age and maturity in the processing of fostering procedures, with their opinion being considered before issuing the relevant administrative resolution or making any judicial resolution proposal. In cases where minors are 12 years old, they must consent to the fostering.
6. Individualized Treatment
Minors have the right to receive educational and psychotherapeutic support from the Public Entity to overcome psychosocial disorders of origin, applicable both in residential and family fostering.
- Types of family fostering
Fostering can be residential or family-based.
According to Spain's 2019 Statistical Data Bulletin of the Child Protection System, published by the Ministry of Social Rights and the 2030 Agenda, as of December 31, 2019, the number of minors cared for in the protection system through family fostering in Spain is about 19,320 compared to 23,209 in residential fostering, illustrating the importance of this resource.
Family fostering, concerning foster family characteristics, can occur within the child's extended family or an unrelated family.
Extended family fostering is preferred over unrelated family fostering as it allows children to live with people they know and trust, preserves family identity, supports ethnic and cultural transmission, fosters sibling relationships, and strengthens affective ties with extended family members, providing a safe environment and resource set to families in crisis. Extended family fosterers must be prepared to ensure the child's physical and psychological wellbeing, cover special needs, and manage relationships and contact with the child's biological parents.
Unrelated family fostering is promoted when extended family fostering is not possible, either due to lack of interested relatives or because they are unsuitable for family fostering.
Family fostering, based on duration and objectives, can take the following forms:
1. Temporary family fostering.
Family fostering will be temporary, either foreseeing the child's reintegration into their own family or as a transitional protective measure towards more stable arrangements, like permanent family fostering or adoption. This fostering will last a maximum of two years unless the child's best interest advises extending the measure.
2. Permanent family fostering.
Permanent family fostering will be established after two years of temporary fostering if family reintegration is impossible or directly for children with special needs or when circumstances recommend it.
3. Specialized or professionalized fostering.
Unrelated family fostering can be specialized, carried out by a family whose member has qualifications, experience, and specific training for fostering minors with special needs or circumstances, with full availability and receiving adequate economic compensation, without constituting a labor relation.
Specialized fostering can be professionalized when, meeting previous requirements of qualification, experience, and specific training, there is a labor relation between the fosterer(s) and the Public Entity.
4. Urgent family fostering.
Urgent family fostering is mainly directed at children under six years old, with a duration not exceeding six months, while deciding on the appropriate family protection measure.
- Regulations on family fostering
1.- International Regulations
International child protection measures were practically nonexistent until the 20th century, with the second half seeing significant legal development at the international level, progressively ratified and incorporated into the various states' legal frameworks.
The Declaration of the Rights of the Child proclaimed by the United Nations in Resolution 1386 on November 20, 1959, states in principle 6 that "whenever possible, the child should grow up under the care and responsibility of their parents, and in any case, in an environment of affection and moral and material security." This Declaration was not legally binding.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child of November 20, 1989, became law in 1990 after it was signed and accepted by 20 countries, including Spain, which ratified it on November 30 of that year. Today, the Convention has been accepted by all countries except the United States.
The CRC is a mandatory international instrument where ratifying states formally commit to respecting and fulfilling the rights and duties outlined, forming part of the countries' legal systems.
Article 21 states, "children temporarily or permanently deprived of their family environment, or whose best interest requires that they not remain in such an environment, shall be entitled to special state protection and assistance." Fostering is the protective measure that addresses this right.
Other international instruments:
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of December 13, 2006. Resolution (77) 33 of November 3, 1977, of the Council of Europe on Foster Care.
Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, of May 29, 1993 (driven by the Hague Conference on Private International Law).
Convention on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement, and Cooperation in Respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children, of May 28, 2010 (driven by the Hague Conference on Private International Law).2. State Regulations
In Spain, it was in the late '80s that a legal framework for fostering began to form, although it wasn't until the '90s when truly relevant state-level laws were enacted.
In 1996, the Organic Law 1/1996, of January 15, on the Legal Protection of the Minor was adopted, partially amending the Civil Code and the Civil Procedure Act. This is a fundamental text in matters of child protection that enshrines the best interests of the minor as a fundamental principle. The minor is no longer considered a passive subject but rather aims for the full recognition of their rights and a progressive capacity to exercise them. With this philosophy, it is intended that minors can progressively build a perception of control over their personal situation and future projection. Family fostering is covered in Articles 20 and 20 bis of this regulatory text.
In 2015, the Law 26/2015, of July 28, on the amendment of the child and adolescent protection system was approved, modifying the Civil Code in its second article, prioritizing family fostering over residential in Article 172 ter.
Fostering is regulated in Title VII of the Civil Code, entitled "On Parental Relations," Chapter V, "On Adoption and Other Forms of Child Protection," Section 1, "On Guardianship and Foster Care of Minors," specifically covered by Articles 172 to 174 CC, reformed by Law 26/2015, of July 28, on the amendment of the child and adolescent protection system.
Article 173 of the Civil Code states, "Family fostering entails full participation of the minor in family life, imposing obligations on the recipient to care for, company, feed, educate, and ensure comprehensive training in an affective environment. In the case of minors with disabilities, previously specialized support must continue or other more suitable in accordance with their needs should be adopted."
3. Autonomous Regulations
Concerning autonomous regulation of fostering, the Autonomous Communities have approved and developed numerous laws according to their competencies in this area, always referencing national and international legislation.
- Competent administrations in fostering
The competencies in child protection are assumed by the Autonomous Communities. IF YOU DECIDE TO FOSTER, you can click on the link corresponding to your place of residence, where you can find all the necessary information.
- I want to foster. Main steps for family fostering
The competencies in child protection are assumed by the Autonomous Communities.
For anyone interested in this child protection measure, you can find the necessary information in the link to Frequently Asked Questions.
MULTICHANNEL SERVICE Be a Fosterer OF RED CROSS
Be a Fosterer is a technological platform created specifically for the Red Cross family fostering project, aiming to allow any interested person to contact the Service through various channels to resolve doubts or seek information related to family fostering, receiving personalized and free attention from specialized professionals.
For more information: www.cruzroja.es/acogimientofamiliar
- Documents of Interest
Statistical Data on Child Protection
- Links of Interest
2019 Campaign
Latest family fostering campaignFrequently Asked Questions.
Frequently asked questions about family fostering
Automatically translated with OpenAI from Spanish