Session 13/15

Cooperating with the biological parents or relatives

Competences to be exercised:
• Understanding the importance of cooperation for the development of children in foster care.
• Understanding the situation of parents whose child is in foster care.
• The skill of planning and practising visits and contact between foster parents and parent(s).
• Managing difficult situations in cooperation.

Theme of the session:
In this training session you are going to work with how to cooperate with the foster child’s biological parents or relatives.

Aims of the session:
The goal of the session is to learn, create and practice methods in your interaction with the foster child’s parent(s) or other relatives in order to create the best possible cooperation between those involved. The foster child should experience agreement and mutual respect between foster family and parents, and the child should not be exposed to conflicts of loyalty between the two families. This is often a major challenge that requires you to be creative and sensitive.