On the edge of alternative care? Specialized residential child care in Finland

Children who are placed outside their homes are entitled to receive high quality foster or residential care based on their individual needs. In Finland, the field of alternative care has become privatized and divided in the... [ view full abstract ]

Children who are placed outside their homes are entitled to receive high quality foster or residential care based on their individual needs. In Finland, the field of alternative care has become privatized and divided in the past few decades. Municipalities or federations of municipalities carry out public competitive tendering procedures, make ranking lists and sign contracts with the private service providers that have been successful in the competition. There are different categories for alternative care services in which service producers compete. There are categories for, e.g., ordinary foster care, licensed professional foster care or residential care, as well as for more targeted residential care services. Foster care is defined as a primary form of alternative care. The aim is to strengthen family-based services and to cut down on the number of placements in residential care. At the same time, however, one of the most recent inventions is the (re)formulation of ‘specialized’ residential care services, which differ from the ordinary forms of residential care as a service and practical implementation. These ‘specialized’ services are close to various professional fields such as psychiatry and services for the disabled. The boundaries between these fields seem to have become unclear and blurred. At present, the regulative base of ‘specialized’ services lies in the grey zone.

Objectives
This poster is based on a qualitative study in which the topic of quality in alternative care was examined. The aim was to examine how the concept of quality is understood and defined as well as what kind of factors either sustain or prohibit the fulfilment of high quality care in practice. In this poster, the focus is on specialized residential child care services, and the following questions are illuminated: ‘What are “specialized residential child care services” and how do these services differ from other forms of services?’ and ‘What do these services reveal about the present formation of alternative care in Finland?’

Method
The data of this particular study included: 1) the documents of public competitive tendering (19 examples), 2) four group interviews (two for purchasers and two for service providers), and 3) one group discussion with public officers who are responsible for monitoring alternative care services. The data were analysed by using a qualitative content method.

Results
The analysis revealed that residential child care services cannot be understood as a singular and unified field. Residential child care is more divided and targeted as well as productized and market-oriented than before. The creation of ‘specialized’ services highlights this change. Service providers are expected to respond to the individual needs of a child in an effective and multi-professional way and to generate changes in a relatively short time frame. Even though the logic of ‘specialized’ residential care services seems somehow artificial and vague, the results reveal the increasing need for such services.

Conclusions
The reformulation of residential child care both as a system and a practice is ongoing in the Finnish context. In the future, it will be important to elaborate the overall role of residential child care services and the expectations of it.