PRAVO I POTREBA UDOMITELJA ZA ODMOROM OD UDOMITELJSKE SKRBI : ISKUSTVA I PERSPEKTIVA UDOMITELJA

Foster care is a form of alternative care for children providing a family-like environment for a child who has been separated from their primary family. Taking into account the complexity of foster care, there is growing advocacy for introducing a social service of respite from foster care. Since this social welfare service does not exist in Croatia, i.e., it is not legally regulated, the paper highlights the need for introducing this service from legal and social work perspectives. This paper aims to present the perceptions of foster carers who have experience in participating in the respite from foster care on how the respite affects the family’s daily routine, meeting the foster carers’ needs, and what the advantages and disadvantages of the service are. Furthermore, the research aims to explore the experiences of foster parents in cooperation with the support network for foster parents in the community, and the accessibility of such services. The research was conducted qualitatively, using the interview method with twenty foster parents in Osijek-Baranja County who have experienced participating in a weekend respite from foster care. Foster parents expressed a need for respite from foster care, and they use the respite to build relationships with extended family and relatives, to work on relationships between partners, to work on themselves and the time they need for personal needs, or to perform activities or tasks that they were unable to do before. The respite from foster care was a positive experience to foster parents, while the emphasis was on the need for more frequent appointments throughout the year in the implementation of the service and the regulation of the duration of the child’s stay outside the family. In addition, the results indicated the importance of the impact of the service on children in foster care from the perspective of foster parents, for whom the child’s well-being and their satisfaction come first. Furthermore, the support network and cooperation with institutions and the civil sector in providing and developing services for foster parents are often insufficient. In conclusion, the results clearly show that the development of services for foster parents is a necessity in meeting the needs of the child and the foster parents, but also that the service of respite from foster care can be a significant contribution to foster parents’ satisfaction with support.