Introduction

A family foster care coordinator is a relatively new profession, established by the Act on Family Support and the Foster Care System of 9 June 2011. It undoubtedly belongs to the so-called helping professions, which H. Sęk (2000) defines as professions in which there is a close interpersonal contact and emotional exchange between participants of the helping process. The profession of a foster care coordinator, or in short family coordinator, has its own specifics, and in the author’s opinion, there is a need to consider individual elements of this profession in order to improve, first of all, direct work with foster families, but also to improve and better organize the work of this professional group. The author of the article undertakes theoretical considerations, but the analyses are conducted from the point of view of a practitioner, a person who has been associated with foster families for many years as a senior coordinator of family foster care. This article addresses the specifics of the work of family foster care coordinators and selected difficulties. It also includes recommendations on the organization of training and participation in supervision of this professional group, as well as the need to standardize documentation and introduce changes in the construction of the basic document in the work of a family coordinator, i.e. the child assistance plan, which would help reduce the outflow of employees from the profession.

Specifics of the work of a family foster care coordinator

The work of the coordinator is regulated by the aforementioned Act on Family Support and the Foster Care System (2011). The profession of a coordinator has been introduced to work with foster families, in addition to a family assistant working with a child’s biological family, where the child has been placed in foster care or is in danger of being placed in foster care due to an inadequate fulfilment of care and educational functions and a threat to the child’s welfare.

The Act on Family Support and the Foster Care System introduced modifications in working with foster families, which were previously dealt with mainly by social workers. Tomasz Gebel (2017) mentions the following changes as significant:

It should be noted that the legislator views the coordinator as a professional, as evidenced by imposing higher education requirements on people who want to pursue this profession. Thus, under the law, a coordinator can be a person with: a) higher education in the field of pedagogy, special education, psychology, sociology, social work, family sciences, or b) higher education in any field of study, supplemented by postgraduate studies in psychology, pedagogy, family sciences, re-socialization, or a qualification course in the field of care and educational pedagogy, and at least one year of experience in working with children and families or at least one year of experience as a foster family or running a family children’s home (Article 78.1 of the Act on Family Support and the Foster Care System). It should be emphasized that education alone – while important and certainly contributing to better performance of professional duties – is not enough. In the case of helping professions, experience is also very important, as it gives confidence in the way tasks are carried out, in the validity of the various activities undertaken for the benefit of the family. Working with others requires a high degree of communication competence, the ability to build relationships and to gain and bestow trust – so-called soft skills. An analysis of data presented by the Supreme Audit Office (2021) on the work of family foster care coordinators, shows that the length of service of coordinators in the profession is not impressive, and families experience fairly frequent changes of coordinators in the course of fulfilling their function. Both of these facts are unfavourable. NIK reports:

“When determining the number of changes of coordinators for individual foster family environments, it was established that in 2018-2020 (first half) there was on average one change of coordinator in each family (in 174 inspected families supported by a coordinator, there were 160 changes of coordinator, i.e. an average of 0.9 changes per family).” (NIK, 2021, p. 29). With regard to the length of service of coordinators in the inspected units, NIK inspectors are quite optimistic about the data presented: “The relatively stable employment of people in the positions of family foster care coordinators can also be evidenced by the fact that in June 2020, nearly 80% of the coordinators employed in the 21 inspected units worked for at least one and a half years. In the audited units, 17.6% of the coordinators worked less than one year, 29.4% worked from one to three years, while 19.6% worked from three to five years, and the largest population, 33.3%, had more than five years of work experience” (NIK, 2021, p. 29). The presented data shows that a total of 47% of coordinators worked for up to 3 years, that is almost half, which in the author’s opinion is not a satisfactory result. A large part, 33.3%, have more than 5 years of experience. It should be noted that when working with people, experience is acquired gradually, and competence is not acquired overnight. Just gaining the family’s trust can take several months. Also, if we look at the frequency of changes of coordinators in the inspected units, we notice that almost every family experienced such a change within two years. Change is sometimes necessary, and given that the profession is feminized, families will experience changes as employees become pregnant and raise children. It is different if the changes are caused by the outflow of employees from the institution to pursue other professions, which is also the case. What negative consequences can this cause and how to avoid them?

To begin with, it is worth noting that a new person may have difficulties in conducting work with the family. Families are reluctant to change. And it should be noted that the coordinator in his/her work establishes (or should establish) a deeper relationship than a typical official relationship, as is the case in other professions. This is due to the fact that the coordinator:

This specificity of work, associated with direct and emotional involvement, may cause new employees to initially encounter family reluctance and mistrust. If the family has experienced many changes of coordinators, a relationship of trust and security may not develop. The family does not perceive the new coordinator as someone who will be able to help – the relationship may become formalized and the employee may not be allowed to meet the family’s needs. The work then becomes somewhat apparent. Therefore, it is important to prevent frequent changes of coordinators, and this is related to many aspects, such as ensuring appropriate working conditions, i.e.: adequate remuneration of employees, support in performing the work, training, as well as preventing professional burnout and the outflow of experienced employees from the profession.

Organization of the family coordinator’s work and documentation

An important part of the coordinator’s work is organising it independently. Coordinators work in a task-based work system. The task-based work system means that the employee’s working time is determined by the dimension of his/her tasks. The employee is subordinated to the tasks he/she has to complete, not to the designated working hours (Jaroszewska-Ignatowska 2020). It can be noted that such an arrangement facilitates proper work with the family, because the coordinator has a chance to meet with the children in the afternoon and/or parents who work until late afternoon. In the case of other employees, such as social workers, it was possible to carry out tasks only to a limited extent, as it was determined by their working hours, usually between 7 am and 3 pm. A task-based work system allows, as the authors point out, for a better recognition of the child’s situation and better opportunities for early response (Klimek, 2012). This is undoubtedly an advantage. And what is the difficulty? First of all, it should be noted that the organization of work in a task-based system requires:

It is also worth noting that it is quite difficult for coordinators who have company mobile phones to finish their work on a given day according to the schedule they set. After completing the work for a specific day, there may be (and this does happen) unplanned evening calls, situations in which foster families need support and help in solving difficult situations. If the coordinator enjoys the family’s trust, he will be the person whom the family first notifies about the problem.

Working in a task-based work system is recommended in the coordinator’s profession, but it is difficult and requires training in the organization and planning of working time.

The work of a family coordinator, like that of a family assistant or social worker, requires combining knowledge from various scientific disciplines, including pedagogy, psychology, social work, or social policy because of the complexity of the work and tasks performed. There are a number of studies related to work methodology and tools for social workers, as well as family assistants. Professor Izabela Krasiejko has undoubtedly contributed to the development of this profession with a number of valuable studies on working methodology for family assistants (Krasiejko, 2010).

Coordinators do not have templates of mandatory documents on which they should rely. In general, individual centres develop internal documentation – i.e., charts for working with families, charts for assessing a child’s situation, or charts for evaluating a family – which applies to all employees of a particular organizational unit. One of the most important documents that the law imposes and which should be drawn up by the family coordinator is the child assistance plan. Preparing this document in cooperation with the family assistant and the foster family, is one of the main tasks of the coordinator (Article 77 (3) of the Act on Support...). Interestingly, despite the demands of the Supreme Audit Office (NIK, 2021), the child assistance plan has not been provided with a template according to which employees could draft it, as well as the postulated changes – as discussed later in the article. The NIK report shows that unit managers indicate the need to standardize documentation. There is a rationale in introducing standards at the national level regarding the work of coordinators, including: templates for documentation, tools and formulation of working methods. According to NIK, there is a need to implement universally applicable standards in this regard. Uniform documentation throughout the country would create a transparent system, facilitate cooperation between social welfare centres, district social welfare centres and other institutions. Unification in this regard creates the possibility of substantive consistency in the case of transferring the family and the child’s documentation to another district due to a change of place of residence. It is worth noting that almost all (20 out of 21 units) managers of the inspected units recognize the need to standardize the implementation of tasks performed by coordinators. In the author’s opinion, documentation templates and methods of preparing it should be developed to improve the work process of coordinators.

Child assistance plan as a coordinator’s work tool – recommendations for changes

First of all, it is worth paying attention to the unclear provisions regarding the time allocated to preparing a plan to help the child. The plan should be created as soon as possible, which means without undue delay (but the term is not the same as the term ‘immediate’). The lack of a more precise definition of the date or conditions (circumstances) for preparing the plans resulted in the fact that in some entities audited by the Supreme Audit Office it was found that coordinators did not prepare assistance plans on time and it happened that such a plan was prepared after many months of placing the child in foster care. It can therefore be concluded that such plans did not fulfil their role.

It should be emphasised that a good plan (especially the first one) cannot be created without a proper diagnosis of the child’s environment – for this purpose, it is necessary to visit the environment several times, to get acquainted with the documentation concerning the child, and above all with the psycho-physical diagnosis, which every child placed in foster care should have. There is no uniform template for a child assistance plan. On the one hand, it can be pointed out that this generates greater possibilities for coordinators and the lack of need to rigidly adhere to a template. On the other hand, however, it may give rise to disputes in the event of inspections by different entities, who may have different views on particular provisions of the plan (e.g. objectives). It should be pointed out that the child assistance plan should be drawn up immediately, after the psycho-physical diagnosis of the child, the diagnosis of the family situation and the child’s needs by the coordinator, no later than the first assessment of the child’s situation. In the case of children under 3 years of age, this is up to three months, in the case of older children up to six months.

NIK auditors and the coordinators themselves, joined by Author, indicate that it would make more sense to speak not of a plan for helping the child, but of a plan for working with the family. It should be noted that the coordinator, like the family assistant, works with the whole family for the benefit of the child and all family members, and does not only focus on aspects directly related to the child.

Pointing out the need to change the document i.e. the child assistance plane into a plan of work with the family, it is necessary to discuss the requirements imposed by the legislator on candidates for foster parents and the families themselves. Candidates are expected, among other things, to give a guarantee that they will properly fulfil the function of a foster family, that they will properly satisfy the children’s needs in terms of living, emotional, educational and social aspects, that they will have a positive opinion on their motivation and predisposition to fulfil this function issued by a psychologist. The families are expected to treat the child with dignity, provide access to health and education services, compensate for developmental deficiencies, provide protection from violence or enable contact with parents and other relatives. Candidates for foster parents undergo a qualification process consisting of several stages. The final opinion is the conclusion that the candidate meets the formal requirements of the Act (i.e. has not been deprived of parental authority in the past or has Polish citizenship), the motivational and substantive requirements (concerning the possibility of proper provision for the child’s needs). It happens that despite a negative opinion about the candidate, the Court establishes a foster family. It should be emphasised that the supposedly positive ideas of deinstitutionalisation in foster care (i.e. development of family forms, increasing the share of professional families in the overall structure of foster families) are proceeding slowly and the ban on placing children under the age of 10 in institutional forms of foster care may result in children being placed in family foster care, most often in related foster families, who do not give the statutory guarantee of duly fulfilling the function of a foster family. Incidentally, it should be added that related families (especially grandparents), which show adequate motivation and a relatively good living situation, have difficulties in terms of caring and parenting skills and these families in particular need support. Let us take a look at the aspects listed below that influence the perception of the child assistance plan as a document that should be, in fact, a plan for working with the family. These include:

In the author’s opinion, the abovementioned elements indicate the validity of drawing up the Plan of Work with a Family (and a Child), which would include the development of support for the child, as well as aspects concerning support for the foster parents in the proper fulfilment of their role.

Seeing the need for a broader approach than assumed in the child assistance plan, employees of MOPS Olsztyn (municipal social welfare centre) often included, as one of the areas of child support, the following component – strengthening the function of the foster family, and here it was decided to include aspects concerning changes in the functioning of foster parents, e.g. participation in trainings. In the case of non-professional and professional families, in line with the statutory provisions on counteracting professional burnout (see Article 76 (14) of the Act on Family Support…), the following component was chosen: strengthening the function of the foster family to prevent professional burnout and this included various intentions related to the family’s participation in projects, trainings or activities undertaken by the coordinator for the benefit of foster parents.

To sum up, both the employees of the centre and the inspectors of the Supreme Audit Office see the need to change the document from a child assistance plan to a Plan of Work with a Family, which in the author’s opinion would make the work of family coordinators easier and more adequate, and would allow families to take a holistic – systemic – look at the family and the role of individual members of the family.

Supporting family coordinators in their work

Family coordinators, due to the primarily emotional burden associated with directly assisting foster families, are at risk of experiencing professional burnout, just like family assistants (see Mickiewicz, K., Babska, A., Głogowska, K., Günther-Jabłońska, A., 2016). Foster families face diverse, often complex problems, resulting from the condition of the families themselves, the specificity of children placed in the families or structural problems (Ruszkowska 2013). This is an unfavourable phenomenon that should be prevented because, as shown earlier, the short length of service of employees, but also their outflow from work, is not a favourable condition for working with foster families. In order to prevent this, the skills and work of coordinators should be improved. It would also be advisable for them to participate in various training courses (e.g. interpersonal training – coping with stress) and to improve their qualifications. This is also a statutory obligation for coordinators (Article77 (5) of the Act on Support…). However, it is not entirely clear who is to be responsible for the coordinators’ participation in and financing of training – the family care organiser or the coordinators themselves? Taking into account the results of the NIK audit, the aspect of participation of this professional group in training should be assessed as insufficient. As indicated in the report, coordinators often did not have access to training and looked for free webinars to increase their competences; coordinators pointed out the need for greater access to training and to be consulted as to the type of training they would like to participate in. Organisers pointed to the financial constraints associated with coordinator training. According to the author, investing in the specialised knowledge, skills and competences of coordinators, given the complexity of the tasks, should be a priority aspect that should not be neglected.

A very useful tool to strengthen the staff of the helping professions is supervision. The definition of supervision in the field of social assistance is provided by Article 121a. (1) of the Social Welfare Act, where we read that “supervision of social work consists in continuous professional development of social workers aimed at maintaining a high level of services provided, maintaining and strengthening professional competence, providing support, searching for sources of difficulties in work and possibilities to overcome them” (Article 121A (1) of the Social Welfare Act). Supervision in the field of social work is also regulated by the Regulation of the Minister of Family, Labour and Social Policy on Supervision of Social Work (2016). However, coordinators are not subjected to mandatory supervision and, according to the audit, few of them have access to the support of a professional supervisor. Out of the 21 entities audited, in 9 of them coordinators did not have the opportunity to receive supervision or benefit from training to counteract professional burnout, in 12 entities they had such an opportunity in the form of professional supervision or peer supervision, although the report does not show in how many entities professional supervision was conducted and with what frequency, and these are after all key aspects. So what should be done with the fact that supervision is not mandatory and that so few entities have access to professional supervision? It seems reasonable to conduct peer supervision in units. Peer supervision is a variation of group supervision. The group consists of approximately seven people with a similar range of professional experience (Heaton 2005). The group has no formal leader and is designed to provide peer support in recognizing hidden anxieties and transference. The small size of the group facilitates its work. The information in the group is confidential and the meetings are about improving relationships at work, getting to know oneself in contact with clients, patients or the persons under care. The informal leader ensures that the meetings do not take the form of gossiping or complaining. Peer supervision is the most accessible form of this type of support. This is because there is no need to employ a professional supervisor (Seredyńska 2013). In the case of coordinators, when access to professional supervisors is limited, it is worth considering the introduction of peer supervision in individual centres. According to the author, this is necessary not only because of the burden of emotionally difficult situations that arise, but also the fact that such supervision is an opportunity to exchange experiences. During supervision, we share our work and have a chance to get advice and reduce the feeling of loneliness at work. It is important to stress that the coordinator usually visits the family environment alone. It is not often that he or she is accompanied by another worker, e.g. an educationalist or a psychologist – mainly in the case of more difficult situations. Although the coordinator has some initial information about the family, e.g. from the qualification process, it is his/her responsibility to have a good understanding and diagnosis of the environment, the family’s needs and possible difficulties. It is up to the coordinator, together with the foster family and the family assistant (if there is one), to draw up a plan for helping the child, which defines the areas in which action will be taken for the child and the family. It is the coordinator’s insight, observation, interviewing and relationship-building skills that will largely determine the success of the work with and for the family. It should be borne in mind that negligence on the part of the coordinator connected with superficial diagnosis of the family environment, lack of knowledge as to the possibility of directing the family to appropriate entities, lack of knowledge of methods of working with the family, i.e. poorly mastered hard competences will affect the well-being of the family which requires such support.

Family coordinators are undoubtedly an important link in the foster care system. Appropriate organisation of work, reflection on the tasks to be performed and on the difficulties connected with them, as well as appropriate support provided to coordinators are important for proper performance of the tasks connected with their support of foster families. The profession of a coordinator belongs to the helping professions, in which great emphasis is placed on the well-being of others. However, in order to be effective in helping others, it is necessary to take care of oneself, including organising one’s own work and seeking to improve.