In Spain there are nearly 17,000 minors in residential centers, more than a thousand between 0 and 6 years old.
The lack of resources and visibility make it difficult for these boys and girls to grow up in a family environment, jumping from center to center until they turn 18.
Our country has one of the most institutionalized systems in Europe. A very high number of warded minors who grow up in residential centers until they reach the age of majority.
The statistics, with 52% of children in residential care, place us at the bottom of Europe on this issue. Countries like Ireland have even closed their centers, adopting the measure of foster care in the majority of cases of minors in a situation of abandonment.
What are the options when a minor cannot reside with his or her biological family?
There are mainly two variants of foster care: family foster care, which grants custody of a minor to a person or family group, and residential foster care, which is a form of guardianship that consists of the accommodation and care of the minor in a shelter for minors. attended by educational professionals.
What is foster care?
Family Foster Care is a protection measure by which the minor who is declared in a situation of helplessness, that is, who, due to various circumstances, cannot or should not live with his or her biological family, becomes integrated into a foster family. .
The minor is integrated into the life of that family, participating in family life and it is the guardians' obligation to ensure the interests of the minor, food, educate them and provide them with comprehensive training.
Being with a family provides the minor with a safe and stable emotional environment, as well as individualized and personalized attention, which will have a positive impact on their personal and social development.
How is foster care different from adoption?
Although both foster care and adoption are child protection measures, there are many and essential differences between both resources.
Foster care consists of the integration of the minor into a family until he or she can return to his or her family of origin or another more appropriate protection measure is determined for the minor's particular situation.
Adoption is a protection measure by which the relationship of filiation between the adopter and the adoptee is established. Furthermore, the legal, personal and family ties between the adopted minor and his or her biological family disappear.
When the adoption of a minor is established, identical rights and obligations arise between parents and adopted children as those that exist due to biological filiation.
It is part of the world of intervention with minors in our Postgraduate in Intervention with Minors
