In 2024, 3,020 people stopped being foster parents. That is 30 percent more than a year earlier. Many foster children are eighteen years or older and move out, but the increased complexity of care also plays a role. “The collaboration can be complicated.”
The outflow of the number of foster parents was significantly higher than in 2023. Of the 3,020 people who stopped, more than 2,000 were in the database. These ‘database foster parents’ are people who were registered to be foster parents for an unknown child. The rest were network foster parents: people who take care of children from their own network, such as a nephew or niece.
Jeugdzorg Nederland (Youth Care Netherlands) was shocked by the high outflow figure and asked organizations for an explanation. Spokesperson Chantal Wittenberg lists a number of causes, including the moving out of adult foster children and the complexity of the care.
Years ago, foster care grew enormously. The children who were then taken in are now eighteen years or older and are leaving home, says Wittenberg. “The foster parents of the children have also become older and often do not start foster care again.” But that only explains part of the outflow.
According to Jeugdzorg Nederland, the collaboration between care providers and foster parents does not always go smoothly. For example, some of the parents feel “dissatisfaction with the system and the guidance”. Wittenberg agrees: “If something goes wrong in the collaboration, foster care is found to be very difficult.”
Collaboration between care and foster parents sometimes difficult
In recent years, a lot has changed within youth care. “We want to do more customization, which makes it more difficult to find a suitable match,” explains Wittenberg. According to her, the requirements for a foster parent have not become more stringent, but she does say that “we think it is important that work is done on shared parenting.”
This means that there is more intensive collaboration and coordination with professional care providers. Foster parents must therefore be more open to this shared responsibility. “That can bring difficulties and be complicated,” Wittenberg acknowledges. “If you build that up from the start, it gives many advantages. But if that doesn’t go well, it can also become very complex. We do see something in that.”
The choice for customization instead of faster placement ensures that waiting lists for foster care are growing. At the end of last year, there were 881 young people on the waiting list. Three-quarters of them were younger than twelve years.
According to Wittenberg, customization ensures better quality care. “But it makes the search for foster parents who exactly match the demand increasingly difficult.” Jeugdzorg Nederland accepts the growing waiting lists, as a result of which a foster child is often placed in various temporary constructions.
Parents’ support decreases
Many concerns therefore end up with the foster parents and some are dissatisfied with the guidance or the collaboration. Wittenberg emphasizes that they cannot completely prevent this, but says they are “doing everything to reduce the outflow.”
But that is a difficult task, because the spokesperson also sees that the support for foster care is decreasing. This is because more and more both parents of a family work, life has become much more expensive and many also have other care tasks such as for their own parents or children. “Foster parents are often between 28 and 50 years old. Those people are also in a busy phase of their lives.”
Other causes of the high outflow are the difference in municipal policy. “One municipality reimburses certain care and the other does not,” says Wittenberg.
Some of the parents also choose to become family home parents. In contrast to foster care, in a family home at least one of the parents is always a care professional. Family home parents have more control over the care. Jeugdzorg Nederland cannot substantiate this development with figures.
No more children on the street, but recruitment is badly needed
Yet not all alarm bells are ringing. “There are no more children on the street now,” emphasizes Wittenberg. The so-called breakdown figures have not increased. In youth care, a breakdown is spoken of when a child has to leave foster care unwanted or unplanned.
“We are still seeing inflow,” says Wittenberg. Last year, about fifty new foster parents started. Interest also remains high, she says. A new recruitment campaign has a large reach, “but it usually stays with clicks.” The organization is in discussion with the Ministry of Health about the recruitment.
Foster care received a lot of attention last year due to the serious abuse of a foster girl in Vlaardingen. She was seriously injured and needs care for the rest of her life. According to Jeugdzorg Nederland, this has led to more interest in foster care. “People clearly feel involved in the fate of foster children”, but also to doubts “about foster care and the organization of foster care”.