MUSCAT: The Ministry of Social Development (MoSD) has unveiled the 'National Guide for Child Care in Foster Families', a pivotal initiative designed to enhance the quality of care for children in foster settings. The guide is aimed at foster families, social and psychological specialists in alternative care, alternative caregivers at the Child Care Centre, Youth Hostels under the Ministry’s supervision and institutions dedicated to child and family welfare.
The guide serves as a comprehensive framework with multiple objectives, including:
Empowering specialists: Building professional capacities for social supervision specialists to provide effective support to foster families.
Standardising care practices: Establishing unified standards and guidelines to streamline the mechanisms for nurturing foster children and ensuring their holistic care.
Enhancing resources: Offering a practical reference for specialists to elevate the level of supervision and support for foster families.
Addressing behavioural challenges: Equipping families with scientifically backed solutions to manage foster children’s behavioural issues.
Clarifying rights and responsibilities: Enabling foster families to fully understand their rights, responsibilities and practical solutions to challenges encountered in caregiving.
The guide also encompasses key topics such as the Sultanate of Oman's alternative care system, techniques for interviewing prospective adoptive families, stages of emotional development in children without family care and the psychological impact of trauma on these children.
This initiative is crucial in safeguarding the rights of children deprived of family care and promoting their best interests. It aligns with the stipulations of Oman’s Child Law and Executive Regulations No 125/2019, ensuring that foster parents and specialists are equipped to provide quality care. By enhancing social protection systems, the guide fosters collaboration between foster families and specialists, ultimately improving outcomes for foster children across the Sultanate of Oman. - ONA
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