In Search for Secure Families : A study of what qualifies as a suitable family for vulnerable children at a child protection organization in South Africa

Sammanfattning: Problem. Approximately 400 000 children are in the year 2018 living in foster care in South Africa. Many of these children have wounds from neglect and abuse from their original family. Even though foster care is intended to be a safe haven many of the children instead end up drifting from one foster home to another, waiting to be placed in a permanent family. Because of the deficiencies in foster care it is of importance to investigate the social workers’ views of a suitable family, since we believe this will affect the assessment, which in the end will affect the child. This thesis explores what conceptions social workers at a child protection organization in South Africa have of a suitable family for vulnerable children. Method. We interviewed seven social workers at mentioned organization, working with formal foster care and reunification with parents or relatives. We use theme analysis to process our findings which we thereafter analyze using Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Result. Our findings reveal that the emotional needs of the child are considered most important by the social workers, followed by the physiological needs. Criminal behavior and poor values and morals are thought to make a family unsuitable. Conclusion.  We found that there are some differences in the social workers’ conception of a suitable family for vulnerable children, although they all underlined the same factors as most important. They also state that these children are thought to have the same needs as any other child; it all comes down to what they consider is the best interest of the child. Regardless which values the individual social worker has, what they look for in every family is that the child will feel safe and loved.