ABSTRACT
Since the pioneering work of Charles Birtwell more than a century ago foster care’s aim has been to be a short-term service prior to restoring the child to the parent’s care (Birtwell, 1886, cited in Kadushin, 1980). As shown in Chapter 1, approximately 200,000 children leave foster care each year. Although not all will return to the home of the parent, this chapter and other kindred studies described in the previous chapter show that the majority will return home.
