In building bridges in foster care, the social welfare system is an indispensable link, crucial when we talk about people who are in need, including children who can no longer stay in their biological family, in their parent’s home, and do not have a new one. This system has a key role in preserving social balance because it provides support to the most vulnerable members of society, ensures social justice, and contributes to reducing inequality. This is precisely why many eyes are on social workers, as those who are expected to provide support, to recognize and listen to stories and problems, and to help solve them. The users, as well as the state, expect this from them. They are the ones who, for example, have custody rights for a child whose parent has been deprived of the right to housing and daily care of the child, as well as those who, in practice, need to present reforms to the social welfare system.
The question is whether they have enough resources, capacities, technical or other necessary support with which they can satisfy all these social expectations.
When the annual work of a social worker is summarized, each has 350 to 400 cases, which does not mean that they cover 400 families, but that there are several procedures within one family, and the number of families for which one social worker is in charge is around 150. This creates a lot of pressure from the users’ side, and there is no time left to devote ourselves to each of them as we would like and should, says Marko Štavalj, a social worker at the Institute for Social Welfare – Regional Office Bjelovar, and explains: Each of these procedures has its course, which in the case of foster care means that the first thing is to try to help the biological parents to stop neglecting their children, in the sense that they take adequate care of their emotional development, regular education, behavioral problems, and the like. If they do not succeed in this, a proposal to the court follows for the deprivation of the right to housing and daily care of the child for one year. During that year, parents have the opportunity to work on themselves in terms of strengthening their parental capacities to create conditions for the child’s return. The social worker advises the biological parents whom they can contact for help and most often these are county family centers where they can go for individual counseling and informs them about the course of the entire procedure, their rights, and obligations. Aleksandar Kolundžić, a psychologist in the same Regional Office Bjelovar, adds that at the same time as the process related to the biological parents continues, the same social worker tries to find accommodation for the child in alternative care, either in a foster family or in institutional accommodation knowing that there are not enough units and that this is the situation in all Croatian counties. Support is also provided to the foster family in the process of preparing for the child and during the foster care itself, as well as to the child who is physically separated from the biological family and placed in a new family.
The case that the social worker took over continues, in parallel in several segments. As far as the biological parents are concerned, the measure can be extended for another year, and if there are no positive changes in the third year, it is proposed to the court to pass a decision on the deprivation of the right to parental care. This is a measure that a social worker, or a team that includes a psychologist and a lawyer, must resort to if, in addition to providing support to parents during the two-year process, which includes the stated measure of professional help and support in childcare, parents failed to change their individual and joint functioning. When the foster family is concerned, again the social worker provides the support. We try to prepare the foster family for different situations and challenges that may occur so that they know how to set themselves up and react in the most proper way possible. We familiarize them with the characteristics of the child who comes to them and the situation they come from. We also inform them about local resources, such as The family center, which is at their disposal, and then when the child comes we are there again, available for all difficulties. We are open to all contacts with foster parents and we supervisee them but we have also had cases when we revoked licenses due to inappropriate behavior of the foster parent, says Kolundžić and continues: As far as the child is concerned, the social worker is the case manager and, in cooperation with the foster parent, checks whether all the child’s needs are satisfied, from the fact that they have something to wear, somewhere to live, and something to eat to the fact that they receive education, upbringing, emotional and other necessary support while growing up. Social workers should visit the child twice a year, do field checks to make sure everything is okay with the children, and if something is not working, see how we can improve the situation. It is necessary to continuously work with both the foster parents and the child, especially during the adaptation process, because it is a traumatic experience for an already traumatized child.
But is it so?
Social workers are often unable to visit the child as they say they should, not because they don’t want to or don’t care, but because they can’t physically make it. Primarily due to the large number of cases and the lack of professional workers compared to the number of users, but also because not all children residing in a particular county are placed in units located in that county. When the need arises, we have to place the children where there is space, so it happens that we place children who have their residence in our county in a home or a foster family in the territory of another Croatian county, so I have to visit the children who are placed in Lekenik in Sisak -Moslavina County and in the City of Zagreb, while colleague Štavalj has to visit children in Osijek-Baranja, Brod-Posavina, and Sisak-Moslavina Counties, says Kolundžić. In situations where several brothers and sisters are separated, although we try not to do so, children can be placed in two different cities. With all the organization and planning, in a situation where new users come to you constantly, every day, it is hardly feasible to visit regularly. My colleague and I are still getting there because we work in a smaller community in terms of the number of inhabitants, but for social workers in big cities this is sometimes impossible, adds Štavalj. This is also an aggravating circumstance for the biological parents who have to have regular contact with their children if they want them returned because the courts also pay importance to regular contact.
What further complicates the job is the administrative-bureaucratic procedure that takes time and energy, and every conversation they have or step they take must be described on paper, because they say: everything that is not written down is as if it has not happened and their daily communication with other services and the institutions with which they cooperate still boils down to sending requests and various other documents and letters by fax. Within the system, which, in addition to the Social Welfare Centers, also includes the police, the judiciary, and the health care system, a better form of communication is needed. In today’s era of super-fast internet and available technologies, everything can be organized much more simply in the sense that the current old-fashioned procedure, which includes slow mutual correspondence and waiting for a response that sometimes lasts for several weeks, is digitized by creating a database to which all relevant stakeholders would have access. This would increase the efficiency of the system and shorten the entire bureaucratic procedure, explains Kolundžić.
In the entire process of alternative care, social workers are most often called out as those who did not do enough, who did not recognize the gravity of the situation, or who did not approach it with enough attention. I believe that the reason is that we are the first to respond, says Štavalj and explains: The public expects us to see and notice certain things and sometimes it is so, but the system does not allow us to do anything because, for example, there are no legal foundations. Before we propose to the court the measure of revocation of parental rights, we in the team consult each other, we discuss and only then make a decision in which direction to proceed and how to formulate the request that the court will not reject. In this process, it can happen that in the biological family, due to mental disorders, alcoholism, or some other addiction, or due to a combination of circumstances or domestic violence, a moment occurs when the parents cause a tragedy, but we could not have predicted this regardless of all our experience. There are also situations when the court decides to return the child to the family and we can no longer do anything. Admittedly, a measure of professional help and support for that family is imposed, but we come once or twice a week, depending on the intensity of the measure, for 45 minutes or an hour, and we cannot cover all the remaining time. Parents are warned of all the consequences of their actions, but sometimes they do them anyway.
In such situations, social workers are publicly called out. During their daily work, they are in the position of the public scapegoats, trying to balance between the law and the lack of infrastructural support that should enable and facilitate the application of measures in practice, as well as dissatisfied users who are in need that can not be met.
Are social workers the cause of the social system’s poor efficiency?
When we summarize all the segments of the social welfare system, such as the lack of professional workers, insufficient accommodation capacities represented by the lack of foster families and places in homes, insufficient infrastructure, for example, the absence of a child psychiatrist in smaller communities, poor connectivity of all relevant services, and the sluggishness of the entire system that should have certain flexibility considering it deals with human needs that change daily, we can hardly blame social workers for its poor efficiency. We can claim even less that these are the people who don’t care, which can often be heard by both users and the public. You don’t enroll in social work studies because of the salary. Also later on in your job, your motivation can’t be only money, says Štavalj. It is an inner urge and motivation to ensure a better future for a child. When I was choosing a profession at the age of eighteen, I wanted to study humanities, and social work was also one of my options. I was additionally motivated by a colleague who had already studied it and a relative who was already a social worker. It was a decision I have never regretted. Although my studies did not fully prepare me for what awaited me, I learned a lot through work, especially at the Social Welfare Center, where there is a really wide range of jobs that are covered, from financial benefits to child placement and crisis interventions. Work is stressful and it’s hard to stop thinking about it when you close the office door at the end of the working day. Removing a child from the biological family is certainly one of the more stressful jobs that a social worker in a regional office does, regardless of the fact we do that as a team and that such a situation did not happen overnight, but rather in a family that we have known for a long time. Yesterday I was placing two children in a foster family and I can’t even describe the feeling to you. This is a specific case in which we have been working with the parents for several years, but a week ago they said that they could no longer do it and asked us to separate the children until they find a different solution. It was extremely emotional for the parents, but also for us professionals because we provide support in that process, not being someone who condemns or punishes them. In this case, the children were small, which made it even more difficult to talk to them. It was a traumatic experience for them and no child should go through this, but it happens, Štavalj concludes the story, and his colleague Kolundžić adds: When my colleague returned to the office, I had the need to ask him how he was, I wanted him to talk about it that the experience doesn’t remain closed somewhere inside him.
The employees of the Social Welfare Centers are well aware of their users’ needs and their limited possibilities to help them adequately. The number of foster families is in rapid decline, so it happens that some families have to accept more than three children as prescribed, of course in agreement with the foster parents if they think they can handle all the requirements. There is no child psychiatrist in the counties and smaller local communities, and this also represents a big problem. Foster parents are not there to deal with the child’s trauma, nor are they trained for that, Kolundžić points out that there are experts for that, and foster parents are in charge of providing support and understanding and enabling the fostered child to go to such necessary treatments. Today, psychological difficulties appear in children at an ever earlier age, especially after earthquakes and the pandemic, and there is an increase in anxiety and depression. And to whom will you take a child with such a need to help him? The hospital will process it, and the clinical psychologist will write a report and order the child to be monitored in a few months, but where will the child go for the treatments they need? All that remains is to find a private therapist, which is most often in Zagreb or other larger cities, and this kind of solution is not possible for foster parents, even biological parents. In this case, the child who should receive help immediately has to wait several months.
Social workers are also aware of the gravity of the situation when it comes to leaving the system of alternative care and the help that these young people need. The form of independence through a period of temporary living together in housing communities is considered very good, but it is very rare. The closest and only housing unit we have here is a house in Đurđevac, which was built two or three years ago. Through such accommodation, young people remain under control, which also means support. They are taught different skills, such as budget planning, approaching the employment process and how to present themselves to an employer, cooking and organizing meals, paying utilities, and the like, says Kolundžić, and Štavalj explains that sometimes young people learn some of these skills in a foster family, but they still need a transitional path to independence to fully understand what that means and have support if something does not go smoothly along the way. This form of support is especially important for young people who, after being released, still have a strong trauma from everything they’ve been through, so they don’t want to return either to their biological or foster family. In practice, children who leave the system may stay with foster parents without compensation because there is an emotional connection, so then the foster parents take over their independence, help them additionally, and use some of their resources to help them find a job, but this cannot last long, states Kolundžić.
According to the opinion and experience of social workers and psychologists at the Social Welfare Centers, both forms of alternative care should be maintained, and placement in homes, as well as in foster families. Foster care is a process of simulating the family that every child needs, and that is why they give priority to it, and emphasize that they work to ensure that the child adapts as well as possible and that all disagreements with the foster parents and other members of that family are resolved when they arise because the foster family faces the same problems as any other biological family. They are also advocating for the institutional form of accommodation to remain because in practice it has been shown that children who have had a strong or long-term traumatic experience in their own family do not recognize the concept of family and are more suited for accommodation in a home with educators and a clear structure of rules. They conclude, therefore, that both forms of alternative care should exist.
When we have finally built the bridge of foster care, defining all its participants and their roles from biological parents, children, social workers, psychologists, lawyers, courts, and other related services and institutions, such as the police, the health system, and civil society organizations, we must refer to the legal network that holds them all together, specifying their actions, controlling the implementation of legal rules, and ultimately sanctioning behavior contrary to given parameters and frameworks.
At the beginning of 2022, a new Social Welfare Act was adopted. I read in the media how it brings a positive transformation and, indeed, it is a theoretically well-developed system, but from those whose work is directly related to its application in practice, I did not receive such positive comments. Specifically, the employees of the Social Welfare Centers point out that the even stronger centralization brought about by the establishment of the central office, the Croatian Institute for Social Work, will further complicate the implementation of procedures in practice and increase the rigidity of the already sluggish system. The administrative-bureaucratic part is being strengthened, which gives priority to papers instead of people, in the sense that the office work is increased. It additionally shortens the time that employees can spend with their users to hear their stories and problems and help them find individual and common resources with which to overcome those issues, which means strengthening the legal and reducing the social component. To recognize a social right, social workers must first collect a considerable number of papers from other institutions with weak digital support of the mutual communication system. There are not enough resources for a large number of measures in local communities, for example, professional services, foster families, and homes, and ultimately there are not enough social workers to meet the expectations of the competent ministry, which is to return as many children as possible to the biological family.
If I only dealt with one family from which I removed the children and placed them in a foster family the next year that would be enough work. I should work intensively with them every week, check on them, support them, and guide them in everything they can do better, such as finding a job and planning the family budget, explains Štavalj, aware that he will not have enough time for the quality he wants to achieve in his work. Social Welfare Center – Regional Office Bjelovar where he works with his colleagues this year became the Institute for Social Work – Regional Office Bjelovar, and their responsibility is to form a foster care team that will cover the entire foster care system in Bjelovar-Bilogora County for the foster care of children and adults. Kolundžić points out that this represents a difference from the previous work, and that even they do not yet know how it will look in practice, considering the existing vehicle fleet and the capacities of one team that should cover the entire county. Lawyers help them interpret legal changes, among which there are some good ones, but there are too few that could directly affect the increase in quality and availability of services to users at the moment when they urgently need them. Practice will show whether the legal social welfare system deals with itself or whether it focuses, practically and not theoretically, on the interest of users whose basic human needs change from day to day, and which are the basis of the very formation of the social welfare system.
The publication of this text was supported by the Electronic Media Agency as part of the program to encourage journalistic excellence
