The operationalisation of cluster foster care schemes : a social developmental perspective

Abstract

The presence of poverty, unemployment and children been infected or affected by HIV/Aids contributed to a high level of children in need of care and protection (Patel, 2005:165) and forced communities to came up with a ways of addressing this increasing need of alternative care. Cluster foster care schemes were one of the initiatives that were started spontaneously by community members to address need for more alternative care options (Colby-Newton, 2006:18). This form of alternative care was also included with the proclamation of the Children’s Act, 38 of 2005 and the Children’s Amendment Act, Act 41 of 2007 (Matthias, 2010:172-176). Although cluster foster care schemes are acknowledge and practice as a form of alternative care for children in need of care and protection the operationalising thereof remain a grey area. In an unpublished study by Taback and Associates, it was suggested that further research should be conducted regarding elements that need to be included in the operationalising of cluster foster care schemes (Taback and Associates, 2010:4). The above form the motivation for this study and also provide the basis for the formulation of the research question namely: “What are the operational elements necessary for the operationalising of cluster foster care schemes?” Following from the research problem and research question, the goal for this research was to explore and describe the present functioning of cluster foster care schemes in order to identify operational elements to be documented in a guideline for service providers and social workers. The researcher made use of qualitative research approach to explore and describe the participants’ perception on the research problem. This research endeavour firstly falls in the ambit of the phenomenology research design, which aimed to describe the conscious experience of the everyday life of the participants, which were in this study the managers of cluster foster care schemes as well as foster parents that provide foster care as part of a cluster foster care scheme. In addition to this the researcher also opted to include the exploratory, descriptive and contextual research design, which guided the exploration, description and contextualising of the views of the participants on elements needed to operationalise cluster foster care schemes. In order to achieve the above the researcher the researcher decided to make use of an intervention research model by Rothman and Thomas (1994:3-51), namely the “Intervention Develop and Design” framework (IDD framework). In this study the researcher only used phases one to phase four and certain steps of the IDD framework to develop the operational guidelines for the operationalising of cluster foster care schemes. In concluding the report of the study, the researcher provided summaries of and conclusions related to the background rational; research questions; goals and task objective of the study; the research methodology implemented; the empirical findings and literature consulted; and the developed operational guidelines. He concluded the document with recommendation related to the research process and methodology employed; research findings; and recommendation for further research on the research topic.