Vesna Pajević*
FOSTER CARE AS A FORM OF TEMPORARY FAMILY PROTECTION OF THE CHILD
Summary
The temporary relocation of a child from a primary family and accommodation in another family is regulated by the Foster Care Institute in the Family Law and the Foster Care Regulations, and as a family accommodation service in the Social Welfare Law.
The temporary family care enables life in a secure, safe and stimulating family environment and the acquisition of a family life model for all children who need to be separated from the primary family.
Fostering provides a dual protection and assistance, primarily and directly to the child, and then to family in order to overcome crisis and to create conditions for returning of the child.
The reality is that foster care today lasts for a couple of years. Long-term stay of the child in the foster family leads to the integration of the child into the foster family and the longer the stay, the prospects for return to the biological family are reduced, which is contrary to the aim of foster care. This leads to unwanted consequences in terms of alienating of a child, losing contact with parents, and forgetting his or her background.
Due to many factors whose effect and duration cannot fit into the same timeframe, it is not possible to determine the duration of the foster care precisely. However, that impossibility must not lead to the other extreme in form of justifying long-term foster care under the pretext of "temporary", or its inaccurate legal definition.
Keywords: temporality of foster care, foster care service, temporality of foster care,interpretation of temporality, the best interest of the child
* Legal Secretary of the Center for Family Accommodation and adoption Kragujevac, PhD student, University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Law