Specialised Full-Time Foster Care Servicefor Minors under Guardianship (Region of Murcia)

The Specialised Full-Time Foster Care Service is a programme run under the Regional Ministry of Social Policy, Families and Equality of the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia. The service is an alternative to institutional care for children and adolescents aged 0 to 17 whose placement and/or integration in other types of foster care is hindered by their special needs and who require particular attention. It fosters their adaptation and integration into family-based care with families in which at least one adult member has the qualifications, experience and specific training needed to look after them.

The children and adolescents who benefit from this service must meet at least one of the following requirements:

• Sibling groups or family reunification.
• Minors with disabilities.
• Minors with special or high-risk health problems.
• Pregnant minors and/or minors with dependent children.
• Minors with behavioural or adjustment problems that hinder their full family and social integration.
• Minors with other special needs that justify the service.

The specialised full-time foster carer is the minor’s reference figure, responsible for their individualised care. They ensure that the minor’s moral and material needs are met and oversee the progress of their Individual Educational Plan, their medical and school follow-up and any other needs the minor may have. This figure is in charge of promoting the comprehensive and inclusive education of the minors, with special consideration for the needs of minors with disabilities, and of ensuring they are prepared for a full life, particularly in terms of schooling and training.

Specialised foster carers are professionals who devote themselves exclusively to the care and well-being of the minors served by the programme. They hold qualifications in psychology, pedagogy, medicine, social work, nursing, social education or primary education, or higher or intermediate vocational training, with knowledge and proven experience that demonstrate the aptitudes required to perform their duties as specialised full-time foster carers, according to the specific characteristics and/or needs of the minors.

The service may be temporary or permanent:

• Temporary, either because the minor is expected to return to their family of origin, or until a more stable protection measure, such as permanent foster care or adoption, is adopted. This type of foster care lasts a maximum of two years, unless the best interests of the minor advise extending the measure because family reunification is foreseeable and imminent, or because another protection measure and/or protection resource better suited to the minor’s development, needs or special circumstances is to be adopted.
• Permanent, when neither a return to the family of origin, nor permanent non-specialised foster care with extended family or a non-kinship family, nor adoption is possible, and it is assessed to be the most suitable alternative for the minor.

The service has an interdisciplinary team made up of a coordinator, a psychologist and a social worker, who ensure throughout the foster care process that it develops properly. They advise and monitor foster families and minors, coordinate with other resources involved in the minor’s life, recruit, raise awareness among, assess and train new foster families interested in the service, and assess and support families of origin in cases where the minor’s reunification is possible, always taking into account the guidelines and directions set by the Directorate-General for Families, Childhood and Work-Life Balance.