THE DESIGN OF A PROTOCOL FOR ASSESSING PROSPECTIVE FOSTER PARENTS IN SOUTH AFRICA

This paper reports on the development of a contextually appropriate protocol in social work for the assessment of prospective foster parents in South Africa. The protocol was designed in two stages using Thomas’s developmental research process and participatory action research methodologies. First, we designed a model of the competencies of effective foster families (determining “what” constitutes a good foster parent and developing a model of the “ideal” foster parents). Second, we designed and developed an assessment protocol with which to assess prospective foster families (specifying “how” one determines if foster parents meet the model’s criteria of the ideal foster parents).