Placements in a family network by Child Welfare Services

The Child Welfare Act requires that if children have to be placed outside his or her home, the child's family network is first surveyed.

The principle is that all children placed within the family network have a valid decision on the matter and a customer plan.

When the child has been temporarily placed with someone in the family network, the family receives compensation for the costs, in accordance with the child's age.

When the child has been taken into custody and placed into a family in the family network, the family receives compensation for the care and costs, in accordance with the child's age.

A child, who has been taken into custody and placed into a family in the family network, and his family, as well as the foster family, all receive the services of Family Care.

Prerequisites:

Taking the child into custody and placing him or her in family or institutional care outside their home or into care arranged in otherwise, for example, a placement with a member in the child's close network, is only the last option, when:
- the measures of non-institutional care are not sufficient or possible
- the defects in the child¿s care seriously endanger the child's health or development
- the child's own behaviour, such as an abuse of intoxicants or criminal activities, endanger the child¿s wellbeing and
- it is assessed that the placement is in the child's best interests.

The service is only for citizens of Helsinki.

Available languages:

Finnish

Related service points and contact information:

• Child welfare social work
  • Social work by community care of Child Welfare Services
  • Child welfare services' family group conference
  • Support person activities
  • Service needs assessment and support for families with children
  • Foster care client counselling
  • Child welfare after-care
  • Reception operations of the crisis work with young people
  • Social work of placements by the child welfare services
  • Placements in a family network by Child Welfare Services
  • Tasks of the Child Welfare Client Counselling Unit
  • Placement process in children's foster care
  • Child welfare family work
  • Family rehabilitation