• Role of Caseworkers: The success of foster care depends in many respects on the quality of the relationship between children, families, and caseworkers. Caseworkers are the face of foster care. Yet few caseworkers are able to play this supportive role. Most caseworkers carry large caseloads, labor under cumbersome paperwork demands, and, with minimal training and limited supervisory support, must make life-altering decisions on behalf of children. As a result, children in foster care often report that they rarely see their social workers, and foster caregivers lament the lack of contact and support they receive. The child welfare agencies should restructure their organizations and adopt practices that support individualized planning and build …show more content…
But sometimes, due to certain unfortunate circumstances, children have to suffer separation from their family of origin for their own betterment. They need to be placed under state care, in some other family, so that their future is secured. Foster care is intended to be a short term solution until a permanent placement can be made.
The work of healing children and families in foster care starts with the child welfare system, but it does not end there. Children in foster care are the nation 's children, and we all bear a collective responsibility to ensure their healthy development while in state care. We can and should do more to return these children to wholeness, but it will require everyone who touches the lives of children in foster care—friends, families, communities, caseworkers, courts, and policymakers—to claim shared responsibility for the quality of those lives. Reforming the child welfare system requires all of these actors to build bonds and create a strong web of support for these vulnerable children. Reform is not a destination —it is an ongoing process of organizational self-examination, evaluation of practice, careful public oversight, and vigilant attention to outcomes. The route to reform is clear. It is our collective responsibility to choose the path of renewal and ensure a more hopeful and brighter future for all children in foster