Peer-reviewed article
Participation of Children, Birth Parents and Foster Carers in the Matching Decision. Paternalism or Partnership?
Kirti Zeijlmans, Mónica López López, Hans W. E. Grietens, Erik J. Knorth ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examines how children, birth parents, and foster carers participate in decisions about which foster family a child is matched with in the Netherlands. Researchers interviewed 22 practitioners from foster care organisations and found that while these groups should be involved in matching decisions, their actual influence is often limited by practitioner assumptions, poor timing, and practical constraints. The study highlights that practitioners play a key role in either enabling or preventing meaningful participation by stakeholders with sometimes conflicting interests.
Key points
- Three main factors reduce stakeholder influence on matching decisions: practitioner assumptions, timing in the matching process, and feasibility constraints in a compromised setting
- Policy encourages involvement of children, birth parents and foster carers, but their influence on the matching decision is often ineffective
- Practitioners are positioned as key figures who can either facilitate or hinder stakeholder participation
- Stakeholders may have opposing interests that practitioners must navigate
- Foster care organisations face limited choices when matching children with families
Limitations
This study captures only practitioner perspectives through interviews and does not include direct input from children, birth parents, or foster carers themselves about their participation experiences. The findings are contextual to the Dutch foster care system and may not generalise to other countries.
Abstract
Participation of children, birth parents and foster carers in matching decision‐making has the potential to improve the outcomes of a foster care placement. When practitioners choose which foster family is the best fit for a foster child, those affected by the foster care placement should be involved in decision‐making when possible. This research paper examines the influence of children, birth parents and foster carers on the matching decision from a practitioner's perspective. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 22 practitioners from 17 of the 28 foster care organisations in the Netherlands responsible for matching children with foster families. The analysis identified three themes that diminished the influence of children, birth parents and foster carers on the matching decision: assumptions, timing and feasibility. The findings emphasise that the influence of stakeholders on the matching decision is highly contextual. In the matching process, practitioners can be seen as key figures in facilitating the influence of stakeholders, yet they are also confronted with the difficulty of dealing with more than one stakeholder, who can have opposing interests, in an often compromised setting with limited choices. ‘Examines the influence of children, birth parents and foster carers on the matching decision from a practitioner's perspective’ Key Practitioner Messages Despite policy to stimulate the involvement of children, birth parents and foster carers in decisions, their influence on the matching decision is sometimes futile. Assumptions made by practitioners, timing in the matching process and a compromised setting diminish the stakeholders' influence on the matching decision. Practitioners are key figures in improving participatory practice to make sure that stakeholders feel understood, valued and taken seriously.