The integrated model of family foster care (miaf): development, and implementation

Description

It is widely recognized that looked-after children benefit from stable and family-based care to promote their well-being. Having this in mind, recent legislation in Portugal posits non-kinship family foster care as the preferred out-of-home placement for at-risk children up to 6 years of age over residential care (Decree-Law No 139/2019 of 16 September 2019). Yet, national administrative data indicates that only 3,5% of children in out-of-home care were in non-kinship family foster care in 2021.
To respond to this state-of-the-art and national priority, an action-research project, driven by a stage-based framework for effective practice in child welfare, is being undertaken to develop, implement, pilot, evaluate and disseminate the Integrated Model of Family Foster Care (MIAF). The development has been informed by scientific literature and key national legal documents, as well as has relied on an iterative process between researchers’ and child welfare practitioners’ expertise, through an ongoing collaborative approach, which is a hallmark of ProChild CoLAB.
The MIAF is an integrated conceptual model and practice tool for high quality evaluation and intervention in family foster care, which is child-centered, scientifically sustained and that operationalizes national legislation in order to be replicable and sustainable at national level.
The MIAF aims to act at the professional and institutional practices level for the implementation of family foster care (meso level) through rigorous and reasoned processes of training, evaluation and selection of foster families; and promoting quality and qualified family home environment. By doing so MIAF should positively impact the foster children well-being and safety, as well as the biological family and the foster family (micro level). It is also expected that MIAF will have a positive impact on indicators of the success and quality of non-kinship foster care in Portugal (macro level).
The MIAF is defined based on 3 vectors that, in the principles that integrate each one, embody the current paradigm of child protection and are therefore central to the implementation of a quality and qualified family foster care: 1) child-centered; Integrated approach to child protection and to the implementation of the family foster care; and 3) Triangulation between science - legislation - professional knowledge.
The MIAF includes two core modules each comprising processes that span the full continuum of family foster care: (1) Recruitment, Training, Evaluation, and Selection of Foster Families candidates, and (2) Foster Care Placement. The second module – Foster Care Placement – includes processes related to the child and the child protection process and to the foster family support, supervision, and continual training within four key processes: 1) the matching, 2) transition to placement, 3) Permanency in foster care and 4) transition to a permanent family context and post-placement. For each process key messages, goals, conceptual aspects and implementation guidelines are provided.

Period	24 Sept 2023 → 27 Sept 2023
Event title	Advancements in Data and Solutions for Tackling Child Abuse
Event type	Conference
Location	Edimburg, United KingdomShow on map