Family group conference in foster care: The role of the coordinator

Background: Family Group Conference (FGC), is a decision making model developed in New Zealand, and adapted for use in European child welfare. Two factors have been identified in previous research studies that make FGC... [ view full abstract ]

Background:
Family Group Conference (FGC), is a decision making model developed in New Zealand, and adapted for use in European child welfare. Two factors have been identified in previous research studies that make FGC function according to its purposes: (1) All participants must be informed about FGC and have an understanding of his/her role and (2) the family coordinators must maintain their role throughout the decision making process. In this paper, we focus on the role of the coordinator. More specifically, we explore whether training and guidance of the coordinators and the number of cases who have completed FGC has implications for the coordinator’s collaboration with the people involved in FGC. We are especially interested in whether training and guidance of the coordinators and numbers of FGCs conducted effects the coordinator’s facilitation of children’s involvement.

Objective
When practiced in Norway, there is a stated aim that the child participates in the FGC. This challenges public and private actors when it comes the balance of the child’s rights of both participation and protection. The following problems are addressed in the present study: 1) is there a significant relationship between the coordinator’s training, received guidance, and number of FGCs completed and the level of collaboration with the actors involved in the FGC? 2) Do the coordinator’s training, received guidance, and number of FGCs completed affect the coordinator’s facilitation of children’s participation?

Method
Data was collected in the period 2011-2015 parallel to a systematic implementation of FGC in child welfare in Norway. The data consists of questionnaires completed by case managers and coordinators in 92 FGCs, involving 114 children.

Results
The analysis is due to be completed by spring 2016. Our preliminary results show that over 91% of all children were present at the FGCs. 98% of the children between 10 and 20 years were present at the FGCs. 74% had been placed in out-of-home care. At the time when the FGC was arranged, 65% of the children were living outside their homes. Few of these were living in kinship care. Based on the case manager’s assessment, 88% of the cases were serious or very serious child welfare cases. Close to 60% of the children had parents with psychological illness.
The involvement of children in FGC requires good facilitation from the coordinators. In our study, many of the coordinators had little or no experience working with the model. The cases in our sample were contributed by 48 coordinators. More than 50% of these had no or few experiences with FGC. Future research will explore whether training and guidance of the coordinators combined with the number of FGCs they conduct has an effect on collaboration with the actors involved as well as facilitation of children’s participation.

Discussions
In the presentation, we discuss the coordinator’s role in FGC in foster care. The role of the coordinator is organized and practiced differently within different countries and we will show how the role is organized in Norway. Furthermore, we will show who the coordinators are; what type of education, training, and guidance they have received; and to what degree the coordinators are satisfied with the training, guidance, and their role as coordinators. Moreover, we will discuss how the coordinators experience the involvement of children in the decision-making process.