The Government renounces the professionalization of foster families to remove children from centers

BarcelonaThe idea of professionalizing foster care has come to an end. The Department of Social Rights and Inclusion has decided to close the Specialized Family Foster Care Program (AFE-EP), a pilot program inspired by the experience established over the past two decades in the Basque Country. The goal was to remove children between the ages of 7 and 18 with serious behavioral or mental health disorders from the centers under the care of the Generalitat (Catalan Government) so they could grow up in a home that would not only offer them love but also intensive care. Of the four families that were in the program, three are determined to continue, while the fourth child is about to move to another family. The decision was made for "administrative reasons," explains Elena Lledós, director of the Catalan Institute for Foster Care and Adoption (ICAA), who does not reveal whether it will be resumed later.

The program, financed by the European Next Generation funds, is based on the professionalization of the foster parents, who must have degrees in areas of childhood or adolescence and who are required to be full-time, in exchange for a child benefit of 2,400 euros and a self-employed salary. Social Security contributions, apart from about 400 euros for the child supportThese conditions led Judith (she omitted her last name to protect the foster child) to leave her job as an educator at a juvenile center in Girona and return to her hometown of Osona, where the child has a well-established life, thus minimizing the hustle and bustle for him. "Now all that made me decide is what we've lost," she complains.

In December 2024, the new ICAA team announced to the families that, once the pilot year was over, it would take a few months to study the program's viability. "They told us to become a UCAE or return to the child. But children are not objects," says Judith. UCAE families (the acronym for educational action cohabitation unit) They are another model of specialized receptionHowever, unlike the AFE-EP pilot programs, foster children receive a monthly financial benefit of €2,400 and lack ongoing technical support from specialists, notes Tomàs Carandell, another participant in the pilot program.

It's not the money.

The four remaining families accepted and between January and June were accommodated under the conditions of the UCAE. Finally, in a meeting last week, the ICAA management confirmed that they would not continue. Lledó avoids mentioning whether the financial cost is a factor, but in any case affirms that the result has been satisfactory. According to Carandell, the decision is incomprehensible from the perspective of the children's well-being, and she criticizes the fact that no negative results have been shown regarding the suitability of the care. "It's not paid for," argues Carandell, who affirms that the foster parents' desire to professionalize is not a matter of economics, but rather a desire to be able to dedicate themselves to them "24 hours a day, 365 days a year," clarifies Judith.

The traumas and complexity of the "backpacks" carried by the children selected for these families require patience and a great deal of skill. It took Judith 11 months to build an emotional bond with the child, and in that time, she says there have been very difficult moments that she has overcome because she was willing to help. The 13-year-old boy didn't want to go to school until February, and now the work continues to ensure he maintains a certain routine and normality.

Moving under the umbrella of the UCAE (National Education Centers for Children and Families) would complicate the stability of the children in foster care because families go from having the support of two permanent specialists to one sporadic one when a problem arises that destabilizes them. These children "need individualized attention," explains Carandell, who notes that after much effort, these children "have stable environments, friends, or go to school" as "small achievements."

A strain on families

But the end of the program is also a shock for the families, who say they had been promised five or six years of stability. The situation is even worse for single-parent families because both types of foster care require no outside work, and becoming a UCAE means no longer paying social security contributions. In Judith's case, she admits that it would be easy for her to return to the center where she is on leave, but since she wants to continue her care, she maintains that being away from home for an entire workday is an unviable option. "I can go to work for eight hours, but I can't squeeze the child's life into one hour," she says.

Both parents feel that the administration has not fully understood the AFE-EP foster care system or the importance of paying foster parents well, although everyone questions the foster care model, which, due to the number of minors admitted and the lack of social educators This makes it impossible to provide specific and constant care. "Foster care is sustained because I am attentive to the child's needs all day long," Carandell concludes.

Although the pilot plan called for the participation of 16 families, the long and complicated process of selecting the best candidates has left some of them falling by the wayside. Catalonia is one of the autonomous communities with a higher percentage of minors in care residing in the centers, while foster care is declining: in 15 years it has fallen from 63% of minors in care to almost 40%.