The family relationship is not terminated just because a child is taken out of a family and is now cared for by a legal guardian, foster family or carers in a child care institution. If your child has been separated from the family, your interest in having your family reunited is protected by the human right to family life.
Support for a child’s return to their family
The child protection official of a local government shall, in cooperation with the person raising the child or with the child care institution in which the child separated from family is staying, be required to maintain and support the relations between the child separated from family and their family, if possible.
The child protection official of a local government shall prepare a case plan for a child separated from family and shall ensure the periodic overview and amendment thereof, if necessary, in cooperation with the child and the person raising the child.
example Ensuring that parents can exercise the right to access their child during the period of separation from the family plays a crucial role. This is so because the possibility of reunification would eventually disappear if the parents and their children were not allowed to meet each other sufficiently often.
Reassessment and return to the family
The authorities are obliged to periodically re-examine the particular family’s situation to see whether there have been any improvements. As a general principle, a child should be returned to the family as soon as possible, if:
- the reasons for the child’s separation from the family have disappeared and the family can ensure favourable conditions for the child’s development in future
example If a parent has previously suffered from serious addiction and failed to take sufficient care of the child because of that, the situation can be reassessed if the parent has successfully undergone the necessary rehabilitation. In such a case, whether conditions have changed and the parent has shown an ability and determination to care for the child will be evaluated.
- family reunification is in the child’s best interests
It is usually in the child’s interests that the family should be “reconstituted” in due course. However, when a considerable period of time has passed since the child was placed in care, the child may have developed a close relationship with their foster family and/or legal guardian. In such situations, it may be in their best interests not to interrupt the new relations and to ensure the stability of the current family situation.