Every year, to conduct research and analysis of the needs of foster families at the municipal and regional level, changes are foreseen in an ordinance of the Ministry of Social Affairs, published for public discussion on the public consultation portal Strategy.bg.
The data from this analysis should be used to plan the required number of host families, as well as their profile. The foster care commissions established at the regional directorates of social assistance, together with municipalities and private providers, will organize and conduct information meetings, campaigns and other events to promote foster care and recruit candidates for foster families in accordance with the needs of the community of host families with a certain profile.
As of April 30 this year, the total number of children placed in foster families was 1,515, according to the data of the Social Assistance Agency. As of the same date, there were 1,742 confirmed foster families in the official register. Families and children with whom family reintegration cases were worked on in April was 1,304. As of April 30, 116 cases had been closed, and 1,188 were ongoing to work. The number of successfully completed reintegration cases in April was 47.
Again, at the end of April, 256 abandonment prevention cases were completed, and 3,178 are still being worked on. The number of successfully completed abandonment prevention cases in April 2024 is 209.
According to the legislation, foster care is a measure of protection for children in a family of relatives or in a foster family who, for one reason or another, cannot be with their parents.
“Mainly, the changes are aimed at improving the processes of providing foster care and increasing its quality, including by regulating requirements for the care that the foster family provides for the placed child,” note the petitioners from the Ministry of Social Affairs.
The changes are necessary in order to bring the relevant regulation into line with the Child Protection Act and the Social Services Act, it is specified in the report of the Acting Minister of Social Affairs Ivaylo Ivanov. The processes for recruitment, evaluation and training of applicants for foster families, mutual adaptation, support and monitoring of the child’s upbringing by foster families are being improved. The possibility of concluding agreements between the municipalities of the district for the purpose of planning, managing and providing the activities in support of foster care at the district level is being regulated, the minister adds in his report.
It is also planned to introduce a methodology by which the candidates for a foster family will be evaluated. It will be approved by the executive director of the Social Assistance Agency and coordinated with the chairman of the State Agency for Child Protection.
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