Collaboration, conflicting loyalties and grief: foster parents’ stories of reunification

Foster parents’ role in the reunification process can be both unclear and challenging. We explore this role through interviews with 10 Norwegian foster parents who have experience with reunification. Using narrative thematic analysis, we examine how foster parents create meaning in their role, within the political and cultural context of Norwegian child welfare services – a system that has been criticised for its inadequate reunification arrangements. We found that foster parents balance their role between being professional and emotional; we also captured a temporal dimension by showing how they create meaning in their role before, during and after the reunification. Key themes include achieving good collaboration with parents early in the placement, helping children to navigate their conflicts of loyalty between parents and foster parents, and ensuring that foster parents receive support in their grief and management of concerns after the child is reunified.