COA - Council On Accreditation

	Foster Care Services

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

Definition

Family Foster Care Services provide children and youth with protection, care, and nurturance by certified or licenced foster parents in private homes. Support services are provided to the family to facilitate reunification with the child. If reunification is not an option, the organisation works to ensure the child is placed in another permanent living arrangement.

Therapeutic Foster Care Services provide children whose exceptional needs cannot be met in their own homes, or in regular family foster care homes, with intensive supportive and clinical services in the homes of specially trained foster parents. Foster parents provide interventions and treatment, protection, care, and nurturance to meet the medical, developmental, and/or psychiatric needs of children. Children may have: emotional or behavioural disorders; physical disabilities; developmental disabilities; severe or life threatening illnesses; or conditions that require the routine use of a medical device and/or daily ongoing care or monitoring. Therapeutic programmes can serve children involved with the child welfare, mental health, and juvenile justice systems.

Note: References to “parents” may include: biological parents, adoptive parents, or legal guardians of a child prior to placement in foster care. The term “children” is used throughout the foster care standards for ease, and includes infants, toddlers, school age children, and youth.

Note: Please note, all Administration and Management standards and Service Delivery Administration Standards that are applicable to foster parents specifically reference foster parents within the standard. If foster parents are not specifically addressed in the standard, it does not apply to foster parents.

Note: Foster Care to Adoption Services will complete: all of CA-FC and CA-AS 2, 3, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, and 14.

Note: Organisations that use kin and non-kin placements for their foster care programme will be reviewed under the Foster Care (CA-FC) and Kinship Care (CA-KC) service sections. Please see Related Files, "CA-FC-KC Template" and "CA-FC and CA-KC Crosswalk" for information on preparing a CA-FC/CA-KC self-study.

Note: Foster Home Services recruit, assess, and train foster parents and may provide ongoing support and monitoring of foster homes on a regular basis. Organisations providing Foster Home Services will complete CA-FC 5, 7, 12, 16, 17, and 19.

Note: Foster Care Case Management Services plan, secure, coordinate, and monitor goals and comprehensive services provided to children in foster care and/or their birth parents. Case management services for children monitor the child's safety, stability, well-being and permanency. Case management services for birth parents monitor the family's progress toward reunification. Organisations providing Foster Care Case Management Services only will complete: CA-FC 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 12, 14, 15, and 19. In addition, organisations will complete CA-FC 8, and/or CA-FC 9 and CA-FC 10, depending on whether the organisation is responsible for managing services to the parents or the child, or both.

Note: Please see Self-Paced_Training: Foster Care Services (CA-FC) in the Tools Index for additional assistance with this standard.


	PURPOSE: Children and youth who receive Foster Care Services live in a stable home, remain safe and healthy, and achieve permanency and well-being.

RELATED FILES


	SERVICE One or more organisation-operated programmes or activities that have a common general objective and deploy the organisation’s material and human resources in a planned and systematic manner. An organisation that publicly promotes or identifies itself in writing as offering a service, is licenced to deliver a service, assigns personnel and/or space to a service, or allocates financial resources to a service is considered to offer that service.


	FAMILY Two or more people who consider themselves family and who assume obligations, functions, and responsibilities generally essential to healthy family life. Child care and child socialisation, income support, long-term care, and other care giving are among the functions of family life. The definition of “family” will rest with an individual’s indication of who plays a family member role, including current or former foster family, adoptive family, extended family members, or significant others. Organisations that believe family is the central constellation in a child’s life, and that family attachments are of primary importance for human development, will strive to work with professional staff to develop a common understanding of “family.”


	FOSTER PARENTS State- or county-licenced adults who provide a temporary home for children whose birth parents are unable to care for them. Foster parents are not considered employees or personnel and are specifically referenced in all relevant standards.


	CLINICAL The study, assessment, and diagnosis of the client situation followed by direct treatment to help the client achieve prescribed goals.


	PARENTS Parents can include: birth, foster, kinship, and adoptive parents. Please see service standards for more specific information about use of this term.


	MONITORING An evaluation involving a periodic review of consumer services, organisational activities, or conduct. Specifically, monitoring is an activity of case coordination, whereas more broadly, monitoring is an evaluation technique used in overall quality assurance.


	PROGRAMME A system of services offered by an organisation. For example, an organisation providing a mental health service may offer several mental health programmes to different populations, e.g., a mental health programme for adolescent teens. The word “programme” can be used interchangeably with the word “service” or to describe specific programmes.


	LEGAL GUARDIAN A person who has legal responsibility for the care and management of a person incapable of administering his/her own affairs. In the case of a minor child, the guardian is charged with the legal responsibility for the care and management of the child and of the minor child's estate.


	ADMINISTRATION The personnel responsible for management functions of the organisation, including fiscal management, human resources, and service delivery. Such personnel determine organisational goals, acquire and allocate resources to carry out a programme, coordinate activities toward goal achievement, and monitor, evaluate, and make needed changes in processes and procedures to improve the likelihood of goal achievement. The term is synonymously used with MANAGEMENT.


	CASE A general term used to designate clients (including individuals, families, and groups) served by an organisation for purposes of monitoring the provision of services. A foster care case is generally based on the placement of an individual child, although casework for the child may include services to the child’s family. A child protective services case is based on an entire family household if a family assessment model is used; otherwise a case is defined as a child.


	INFANT A child aged one year and under.


	MANAGEMENT See ADMINISTRATION