Working with Foster Care and the use of Family Group Conferences. Children and adolescent`s experiences.

Objective: Family Group Conference is a resolution model, which can be used by the Child welfare services. The intention behind the model is to increase the impact of family decision-making in child welfare processes. It is... [ view full abstract ]

Objective: Family Group Conference is a resolution model, which can be used by the Child welfare services. The intention behind the model is to increase the impact of family decision-making in child welfare processes. It is possible for children, parents, and others from the child`s network to participate in the Family Group Conference. However, it is the child’s situation which is to be the center of the discussion. In Norway, Family Group Conferences were introduced at the end of the 1990s, and the implementation of the model has had high governmental priority. In the autumn of 2011, the research project Use of Family Group Conferences in Foster Care was initiated. In this project, data was collected from 92 child welfare cases, including 114 children. 91 % of these children were present during Family Group Conferences. The aim of the current study was to explore children and adolescents` experiences of participation in Family Group Conference when foster care is involved.
From the children and adolescents perspectives, are Family Group Conferences a good way to solve problems within the family? Do Family Group Conferences contribute to create some predictability in children and adolescents` lives?

Method: Data was collected through semi-structured interviews of 22 children and adolescents in the age of 7- 17 years, 12 girls and 10 boys, from 18 Family Group Conferences.

Results: Children and adolescents reported that they lacked information about different aspects related to Family Group Conferences. Nevertheless, they had an idea of what the aim of the proceedings was. The children`s involvement and degree of decision making before and during the Family Group Conference varied. Despite stress and negative emotions ahead of Family Group Conferences, none of the children expressed regrets regarding their participation. Children and adolescents did not report any traumatic incidents from the meetings. The meetings were described by several as boring.
After the meetings, negative emotions seemed to be about what was going to happen in the future. Family Group Conferences seem to have a somewhat limited function when it comes to creating predictability, especially for the youngest children. Most of the children in this study wanted to participate in Family Group Conference even though it seemed unclear to what extent, or in what way, their participation could be beneficial for them or their situation.

Conclusions: The main finding is that sufficient and adequate information seems to be crucial when facilitating for children and adolescents`participation. There is room for some improvements regarding sharing information with children before and after Family Group Conferences. There were no indications that children and adolescent`s participation were harmful to them, even though some children expressed feeling pressured to participate. However, there are still questions related to long-term outcome of Family Group Conferences that remains unanswered.