Professionellt föräldraskap samhälleliga förutsättningar för familjehem för tonåringar

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this licentiate thesis is to describe and analyse present foster care in Sweden. Furthermore, a purpose is to conclude about ways of organising foster care for teenagers and about the distinction between foster care as a kind of parenthood or as a work. The social welfare boards of local authorities are responsible for recruiting foster carers, being able to place children in need in foster care. The conditions of the local authorities, fulfilling this responsibility are discussed, as well as the significance of the growing amount of independent fostering agencies. The thesis discusses the available opportunities pertaining to finding and keeping foster carers. Further, it discusses the need of improving conditions for foster carers in order to more easily recruit new ones. These questions are discussed in the context of the changes in the Swedish society and the changing family situations during the twentieth century and up until today. Five different organisations were studied, of which all have adapted to the present situation, namely a lack of foster carers, especially for teenagers in need. One organisation has been studied in additional detail, a project organisation where four local authorities have been cooperating, aiming towards a better foster care situation for teenager  placement. Conclusions include that there are deficiencies within the foster care system in some respects. It seems that local authorities do not give sufficient priority to foster care, often due to local authorities not having enough resources. Conclusions further include that public strategies to cope with the situation are either a public-private partnership or cooperation between local authorities within a regional setting. Finally, the thesis presents new ways of organising foster care for teenagers in order to meet their needs and general characteristics of a good foster care.