Objectives

The general aim behind the study is to deepen knowledge of emergency and diagnostic fostering to be able to draft improvement proposals that can guide and facilitate the decision-making of expert and political managers. Three specific goals arise from this general aim:

1. To analyse the assessments and satisfaction of the persons involved regarding the process for studying emergency and diagnostic fostering, future predictions for such fostering, their duration and their reason for concluding
2. To identify the characteristics of the child's transition process towards a new home and their integration into the new family unit and participation in the decision-making from those involved
3. To find out the support needs that families and professionals express throughout the process, as well as the improvement proposals they make

The participants were:

• 4 emergency and diagnostic fosterers with a long history performing such fostering (2 men and 2 women)
• 3 already adult biological children (of emergency and diagnostic fostering family) who showed an interest on giving their point of view (2 men and 1 woman)
• 1 young adult who, when a child, had been given emergency and diagnostic fostering (1 man)
• 2 people who adopted a child previously given emergency and diagnostic fostering (2 men)
• 8 persons who provided long-term fostering for children previously given emergency and diagnostic fostering (4 men and 4 women)
• 6 professionals from the reference fostering team of the first participating fosterers (5 women and 1 man)

Duration: 1 year, 2023