Government launches campaign to encourage families to foster children
Portugal Resident
Only 4% of Portuguese children in care are currently with foster families
Of the 6,446 children currently in ‘instititional care’ in Portugal, only 356 have been placed with foster families.
It is a reality that the government wants to change – and thus the campaign presented today.
Secretary of State for Social Action and Inclusion Clara Marques Mendes tells Lusa: “The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness of the need to have more foster families and not only to raise awareness, but also to inform”.
To this end, the government has chosen to bring together various entities that are involved in foster care – namely the Social Security Institute (ISS), Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa (SCML) and Casa Pia de Lisboa.
Based on the most recent data, it is possible to see that the majority of children in foster care are aged from newborns to nine-year-olds.
The greatest growth in the number of foster families has been seen in the districts of Lisbon and Porto, with Viseu and Setúbal “starting to develop this response more from 2023 onwards”, says the secretary of state. But a great deal more needs to be achieved.
With this new campaign, the government hopes to “take a leap forward” from the 4.1% of children currently placed with foster families, but has not set any targets. Clara Marques Mendes has simply said that the hope is to reduce the number of children in institutional care “considerably” – stressing the beneficial effects of foster care versus institutional care in terms of healthy development.
The campaign will involve concrete actions at the level of the various municipalities, being visible both on social networks and on posters, she said.
It’s important to explain what a foster family is, Marques Mendes stressed, pointing out that it is a temporary measure, and that families receive ‘various forms of support’.
The Secretary of State also said that the government has a working group that will, until November 30, evaluate three strategies related to children’s rights and present guidelines on what can be improved.
Source: LUSA
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