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Re-Examining Social Work Roles and Tasks with Foster Care

NCJ Number
234502
Journal
Child and Youth Services Volume: 32 Issue: 1 Dated: January-March 2011 Pages: 19-38
Author(s)
Leon C. Fulcher; Suzanne McGladdery
Date Published
March 2011
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This article explores how social-work roles and tasks with children and young people in foster care change as Social Workers transition from case management roles within State, provincial, or local authority departments to become Supervising Social Workers, or Team Managers of Foster Careers, or Directors of foster care services.
Abstract
In order to promote developmental outcomes with children and young people and to nurture their positive health and well-being in foster care, social workers and case managers are required to direct professional attention toward both the child or young person and her or his daily living environment - at home, at school, and in the local neighborhoods in which they live. When viewed from an ecological perspective, foster care environments are represented conceptually as a nested cluster of settings ranging from immediate life spaces and networks of relationships in a foster home, at school, and in a neighborhood, to organizational contexts holding a statutory duty of care for children and young people assigned looked after status, along with national policies and statutes which frame foster-care environments. (Published Abstract)