Abstract

NAICKER, Pathamavathy  and  BOTHA, Petro. Foster care: yes or no? the decision-making processes of social workers rendering foster care services. Social work (Stellenbosch. Online) [online]. 2023, vol.59, n.1, pp.58-77. ISSN 2312-7198.  http://dx.doi.org/10.15270/59-1-1093.

Decisions made by social workers play a crucial role in foster care. Despite the challenging conditions under which social workers work in South Africa, they continue to make decisions to place children in foster care. There is a lack of research on the decision-making processes of social workers rendering foster care services. A need to understand what decisions are made and how these decisions are made prompted this study. A qualitative approach was applied using the multiple case study design, with explorative, descriptive and contextual designs. Most social workers make decisions using a mix of intuition and empirical evidence, justifying the child's best interest as the basis for their decisions. This study contributes to the knowledge of the decision-making processes of social workers rendering foster care services. This knowledge can enable social workers to be consciously aware of their own decision-making processes during all the phases of rendering foster care services, facilitating transparent decision-making, with the best outcome for the foster child and his/her biological and foster family.

Keywords : decisions; decision-making process; intuition; analytical; social worker; foster care; foster child; foster parent.

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