Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Social Work (DSW)

Department

Social Work

Faculty/School

Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work

First Advisor

Anne Westhues

Advisor Role

Dissertation Supervisor

Abstract

Temporary foster care is a vital and essential resource and service in facilitating the interventions on the part of public child welfare agencies when such intervention requires the temporary removal of a child from his/her natural family. Despite the necessity of having a comprehensive, viable, and responsive temporary foster care program in place, foster care continues to be fraught with problems. These problems are such that foster care is considered to be in a state of crisis. This crisis state poses critical challenges for public child welfare administrations. This thesis reviews the issues related to the crisis in foster care as well as the critical challenges facing public child welfare administrations. The focus of the thesis was to determine if public child welfare administrators and foster parent associations report a knowledge of the philosophy of permanency planning and whether they work in partnership in managing temporary foster care programs. A 95 item survey questionnaire was designed by the author and administered to all foster parents in executive committee positions in local or provincial foster parent associations in the Provinces of Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, and to all individuals in management positions in public child welfare agencies in both provinces. Seventy (70) foster parents and seventy-five (75) management personnel comprised the population for the thesis. The response rate for validity and reliability testing of the questionnaire to a sample size of N=29 was 62%. The response rate for the 116 questionnaires administered in the study itself was 65.5%. The data collected were examined and discussed using descriptive statistics. Conclusions derived from the data suggest temporary foster care services and programs in Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia are not significantly grounded in the principles of permanency planning and there exists a discrepancy between what is agreed to in principle and what occurs in actual practice both in direct service and management activities in relation to temporary foster care.

Convocation Year

1993

Convocation Season

Spring

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