Remaining of a child with a caregiver

Service Description

Not every child grows up with his or her birth parents or with a birth parent. Neglect, domestic violence or a serious illness of a parent can be conditions that severely limit the child's well-being. Under certain circumstances, a child may then be placed with a foster parent or foster family. Often, family foster care also occurs as a result of parents placing their child in the care of relatives, such as grandparents, for an indefinite period of time.

As a foster caregiver, you help to provide for and strengthen the well-being of the child entrusted to your care. If the conditions in the family of origin of your foster child do not improve or otherwise in agreement with the parents, the child can also stay with you permanently. If the parents do not (or no longer) agree to this, you can apply to the family court for an order for the child to remain with you. The family court orders the child to remain with the caregiver if and as long as the child's well-being would be endangered by being taken away from the caregiver.

If the conditions for issuing a permanent order to remain are met, the court must also consider the child's need for continuous and stable living conditions in its decision as part of the child's best interests.

If there is an urgent need for an immediate court order and a final decision is not yet possible, the court may also decide this as a provisional measure by way of a temporary order.

Note that the rights of the child's parents are of great importance. Therefore, even during the time when the child is not in their care, they have a right to counseling and support, as well as to foster their relationship with their child. The aim is to improve the conditions in the family of origin in such a way that the parents are able to bring up the child themselves again, or at least to promote their relationship with the child and their understanding of the child in such a way that another perspective on life can be developed by mutual agreement which is in the best interests of the child and is designed to last. Insofar as contact is in the best interests of the child, the right and duty of the parents to contact with their child also applies if the child lives with a foster carer.

The basis of the court's decision is the so-called "principle of the best interests of the child". This means that the decision is not based on the subjective wishes of the parents or caregiver. Rather, it must be ensured that the child is only taken away from the foster family by the parents if this does not harm the child by breaking off the relationship.

Source: Zuständigkeitsfinder Thüringen (Linie6Plus)

No competent authority found

Please enter your location.