"Det är inte som att köpa möbler på IKEA, där medföljer i alla fall en bruksanvisning" - familjehemsföräldrars upplevelser av råd och stöd ifrån socialtjänsten

Sammanfattning: From 2004 there has been a substantial increase of foster homes on a full day contribution, in relation to this, municipalities have a hard time in recruiting foster homes. Earlier studies has pointed at that social workers contact with the foster home is an important parameter when it comes to decrease risk of collaps within the sector of foster home care. Our aim with the study has therefore been to investigate opinions of foster parents regarding their experiences of social service’s contacts when it comes to for example guidance, advices and supportive contribution. Moreover, another purpose has been to investigate if those contributions according to foster home parents have resulted in that they have learnt to deal with issues from a more successful point of view, focusing on issues that can stem from the placement itself and therefore make it possible continuing their mission as a foster home parent. The study is based on qualitative interviews. Our selection of respondents is consisting of 11 family home parents (distributed on seven foster homes) from two municipalities in the south of Sweden. Our conclusions are that all family home parents have experienced situations where they have seeked advice and support from the social service bureau. The experiences regarding whether social service has been supportive in those situations varies and are based mostly on the relation between foster home and social service. This relation is also impacting possibilities to get attention for other requests for different occasions. According to foster home parents no ongoing support or advisable contribution has been offered to them other than when they have taken the initiative themselves. Taken this into account, background is mirroring the social workers lack of availability as a huge issue.