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Foster Care in Europe: outcomes and evidence

The international seminar on foster care aims to promote knowledge exchange on foster care outcomes in research and practice in different European countries. Foster care is constantly evolving, in a changing world. The purpose of this seminar is to point out how foster care has evolved in different countries, and seek to identify future challenges in different realities and contexts.

In Portugal, less than 5% of children and young people that are placed in the child protection system are in the care of foster carers. The entry into force of the Law No. 142/2015, of 8th September enshrines foster care as the main type of placement for children up to 6 years of age. This is a positive evolution, since it allows to approach our legal framework to the foster care model of Western countries. Moreover, it is expected that this evolution will also lead to the need of more scientific knowledge about foster care, in order to identify what type of placements have better outcomes, under what circumstances, and for which group of children or young people.

Foster care can be defined as generous sharing, that should be guided by rigorous and qualified scientific criteria, which promotes child well being and defends the privacy and rights of the involved families, combining "know-how" with generosity and solidarity. Therefore, this Seminar aims to be a place of knowledge exchange, reflection and knowledge production that promotes and guides the development of foster care practice.


Accepting new enrollments is not possible, due to the high number of participants already registered in the Seminar.