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These Standards for Foster Care are available to all stakeholders engaged in the protection, care and support of children where foster care provision may be required. These Standards are intended to guide social workers and other service providers in monitoring foster care services. The primary aim of these Standards is to ensure that the best interests of the child are sought when a child is placed in foster care. These Standards will lay the foundation for ensuring that foster care is a viable alternative care solution for children in need of care and protection.
Abstract
In Ghana, the reform of the child welfare system is shifting the care of orphans and vulnerable children from residential care to foster care. However, the system has faced difficulties in recruiting foster parents. Therefore, this qualitative research explored the motivations and challenges of foster parents in Accra, Ghana. A total of 15 foster parents took part in semi-structured interviews that were analysed using an inductive thematic approach. The study found that the participants undertook the role of fostering because of their love for children, religious and social…
Introduction
Foster care provides a family-based setting for children whose biological family is unable or unwilling to care for them. Foster care is the least restrictive formal alternative care option for children in need of care, providing a family life for children who cannot live with their own parents. As with all alternative care arrangements, the goal of foster care is reunification; returning the child to their home as soon as the problems that caused them to come into foster care have been resolved and it is clear that their parents are able to look after them safely. However, in…
Purpose of the Manual
This Manual provides the materials needed for the Department of Social Welfare and Foster Care Agency (where applicable) to conduct the following foster care related activities:
- Foster parent recruitment drives;
- Foster parent orientation sessions; and
- Foster parent training.
- Foster parent recruitment aims to identify and motivate people in the community to apply to be a foster parent.
- The goal of foster parent recruitment is to ensure that a sufficient number of…
ABSTRACT
Surveys were employed to explore the experiences of children in care and their carers about traditional fostering. They also examined the perspectives of randomly selected adults in the community about the practice of traditional foster care in the Tamale area of northern Ghana. The 74 participants responded to closed‐ and open‐ended interview questions about traditional foster care. Frequencies and thematic grouping of qualitative responses showed that the need to keep family ties alive was the key reason for placement of children with family and kin. Majority of the children…
In 2017, MEASURE Evaluation worked with a country core team (CCT) in Ghana, led by the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) of the MOGCSP, to engage government partners and other stakeholders to design, plan, and conduct a participatory self-assessment of the national alternative care system that will support the government and its partners in continuing to advance alternative care.
The assessment framework, finalized with input from USAID headquarters, USAID field offices, and 23 stakeholder interviews in Ghana, covered nine areas of alternative care: (1) prevention of unnecessary…
Abstract
Each year, some young people leave children's homes or orphanages in Ghana to start life on their own. However, little is known about their challenges and the factors that influence their coping mechanisms. Data were collected through interviews with 23 care leavers and analysed using the framework analysis. The findings show that the care leavers were experiencing challenges with employment, housing, and social integration. Risk factors included having inadequate social and cultural skills and leaving care without employment. The protective factors that influenced the…
This presentation by key actors in children's care reform in Ghana was given at a workshop in London in September 2017, facilitated by MEASURE Evaluation, funded and supported by DCOF/USAID and focused on moving forward alternative care reform in Ghana, Uganda, Armenia and Moldova. The presentation provides an overview of the demographic data of Ghana and offers a thorough review of the situation of children's care, and care reform efforts, in Ghana. The presentation outlines the key actors in care reform in the country, the…
The 21-22 June 2017 Africa Expert Consultation on Violence against Children (VAC) in All Care Settings was the second in a series of regional consultations focused on engaging experts within the region to collaborate, share learning, and formulate a set of regional recommendations for key actors to effectively address violence against children within all care settings,…
This chapter discusses the practice of child circulation in Ghana. Coe notes that in Ghana, child circulation is not meant to break a child’s connection with biological parents. It is meant to increase the child’s social connections and support structure. Per Coe, when Ghanaians go abroad, they often look to place their children in other households, generally in the homes of people not related to them in the country of migration. Traditionally in Ghana, children are known to belong to multiple mothers and fathers.
Coe discusses the two types of circulation associated with…