Abstract:
Argues that children in long-term foster-care in South Africa are subject to impermanence in their living arrangements. Long-term foster-care is for an unlimited time-period, during which the biological family can at any time rehabilitate itself and petition the court for the return of the child. This is exacerbated by child care legislation which does not provide for legal guardianship in foster-care through termination of parental rights and reconstruction services to natural parents. At present, the move in child care practice is to institute permanency planning philosophy and tenets for children placed in foster-care in order for them to experience stability and continuity of relationships and family life. There is a need for the development of a guideline which will exclude natural parents from resuming the care of their placed child, thereby advocating foster care as the next option of permanency for a child, given the situation where adoption is not a feasible alternative. This guideline can hopefully be utilised to gather data motivating for legal guardianship in foster care, through termination of parental rights, thereby assuring the long-term foster child of permanency in his/her living arrangements.
