Reasons used by Flemish foster care workers in family reunification decision making

Decisions of child welfare workers regarding permanency planning, including a reunification with the birth parents, have a strong impact on the children and the parents. Although a safe reunification of children placed in out-of-home care is considered an important task of child welfare systems, limited research exists regarding reunification. The current study aims to uncover criteria used by Flemish foster workers to substantiate a reunification decision, how important these criteria are vis-`a-vis each other and how difficult it is to assess these criteria. The criteria for reunification used by foster care workers were examined using concept mapping. Concept mapping resulted in 53 criteria clustered in six clusters ranked in descending importance: (1) Parents offer safety and focus on the child, (2) Conditions for parents, (3) Interest of the child, (4) Reunification is supported, (5) Conditions for the child and (6) Parents are willing to collaborate during and after reunification. The more important criteria are, the more difficult they are considered to assess. This research shows that the most important criteria are changes regarding safety and being able to focus on the interest of the child. Foster care workers consider most criteria easy to assess.