FAQ

Regional Foster Parent Support Agencies are community organisations funded to recruit, orient, train, and support foster caregivers within a particular region of British Columbia. They run discussion groups and workshops, support foster families through peer groups and one-to-one contact, work with MCFD and Indigenous agency staff on programmes, and provide protocol and investigation-resolution support. They are the practical, community-based layer of support closest to caregivers day-to-day.

On Vancouver Island, the regional support agency is the Foster Parent Support Services Society (FPSSS), which is the home of Caring Families Society (CFS). In most regions the regional agency and the local caregiver support programme are the same organisation, so there is usually a single agency to go to for recruitment, training, peer support, and investigation-resolution support.

Source: Foster Family Handbook

Even during a protocol investigation, you keep your rights as a caregiver. You have the right to be treated with consideration, trust, honesty, respect, acceptance, and fairness in all circumstances, and the right to access support of your choosing at any stage of the process. If the background information on a child included a known history of making false allegations, that history should have been shared with you by the child’s social worker before or at placement; if it was not, raise that with your resource social worker.

If you believe an allegation is unfounded and it cannot be resolved through the protocol process, the formal concerns resolution process through MCFD remains available, as does the independent external review route through the Ombudsperson of BC. CFS can support you personally and help you navigate the process, but it does not make decisions within it.

Source: Foster Family Handbook

If MCFD decides to close your Family Care Home, you must be told why, and the process has two required steps. First, the reasons must be communicated to you in person. Then a letter confirming those reasons in writing must be sent. Both the verbal conversation and the written follow-up are required.

This rests on your broader right as a caregiver: if your Family Care Home Agreement is terminated or suspended, you are entitled to receive the reasons and you have the right to appeal the decision.

Source: Foster Family Handbook

If you believe the reasons given for closing your home are incorrect, incomplete, or unfair, several options are open to you. You can consult the BCFFPA, which can help you understand your rights and next steps, or the FAFP, which provides equivalent support for Indigenous caregivers and caregivers of Indigenous children. Your CFS Area Coordinator or regional foster parent support agency can also support you and help you understand your options.

If you want to formally challenge the closure, MCFD’s internal concerns resolution process is available, starting with informal discussion with management, then a formal written review request, and if needed a written request to a director. For matters of administrative fairness, the Ombudsperson of BC is an independent external review option. Whether the closure is initiated by MCFD or by you, support services are available to help manage the transition for you and for any children who are moved as a result.

Source: Foster Family Handbook

How a child came into care determines their legal status, and that status affects what you can decide on the child’s behalf. There are three main statuses. When a child is in care by agreement, the parents have signed a voluntary care agreement and remain the legal guardians; they must be involved in planning, and their consent is generally required for guardianship decisions such as medical care unless the agreement says otherwise. Because the plan is for the child to return home, you and the social worker should actively support the family’s involvement.

When a child comes into care through removal for protection reasons, a director takes on care and guardianship; you can decide day-to-day matters like routines, activities, and schoolwork, but you must consult the child’s social worker before other decisions. When a child is in continuing care, return to the birth family is unlikely and planning focuses on long-term permanency. When a child is first placed with you, confirm their legal status with the social worker, along with which decisions need the worker’s or the parents’ involvement and what the current plan for the child is.

Source: Foster Family Handbook

Guardianship includes all the rights and responsibilities of a parent: making legal decisions about the child, including consent to medical care, a driver’s licence, marriage, and out-of-country travel. Custody includes the day-to-day care of the child along with all the rights of guardianship. In most cases these are not separated, but the distinction matters when you are navigating consent for medical care or other significant decisions.

In certain situations, a director can formally authorise foster parents to carry out some of the director’s duties relating to a child’s care, custody, or guardianship. If that applies to your placement, it will be set out in your Family Care Home Agreement, so it is worth confirming with the child’s social worker whether you have been specifically authorised for any such decisions.

Source: Foster Family Handbook

Children in care are entitled to the same degree of privacy that reasonable parents would give their own children, taking into account the child’s age, capacity, and living arrangements. Provided their safety and wellbeing are not at risk, that includes reasonable privacy on the phone so conversations are not routinely monitored or overheard, privacy in the bathroom, the right to receive mail without it being opened by you, and reasonable security and privacy in their personal space and possessions.

These rights reflect the broader legal rights of children in care under the CFCSA and are written into the Family Care Home Agreement you sign. The standard to apply is what a thoughtful, reasonable parent would do, not a perfect parent and not a custodial institution: children in care are living in a family home and should experience the kind of privacy that ordinary family life provides.

Source: Foster Family Handbook

A child in care has the right to possess personal belongings. In practice that means they should have appropriate luggage or bags and a dedicated place to store their things. They may refuse to share their belongings with others in the home, including other children in care, and can insist that others treat their belongings with respect. They may also take their belongings with them when they move to another placement or leave care.

Respecting this is part of respecting the child’s sense of stability and identity in your home. For children who have experienced instability or loss, having a space and possessions that are genuinely their own can matter a great deal.

Source: Foster Family Handbook

Privacy and possession rights do not apply when a possession threatens the safety of the child or another person, or when possessing it is against the law, such as a weapon, a controlled substance, or stolen property. In those situations, notify the child’s social worker immediately. The social worker arranges for the item to be confiscated and notifies police if required; this is the worker’s responsibility to manage, not yours to handle on your own.

If you have reason to suspect a child is holding something contrary to criminal law, do not conduct a search yourself. Notify the child’s social worker, who may then search the child’s belongings. The child should be present during any such search unless waiting would put someone else’s health or safety at risk.

Source: Foster Family Handbook

The Child, Family and Community Service Act (CFCSA) is the legislation that governs child protection and family support services across British Columbia, and it became law in 1996. It provides the legal authority for child protection, authorises social workers to take children into care when necessary, establishes the rights of children in care, sets out the obligations of foster caregivers, and governs the support services that help keep children safely at home. Everything you do in your role, and every decision MCFD makes about a child in your care, must be consistent with this Act.

Understanding the CFCSA helps explain why certain decisions are made the way they are, why some information is handled with strict confidentiality, and what principles guide everyone in the system. The full text is available at bclaws.ca, and MCFD publishes standards and policy that translate the legislation into day-to-day operational guidance.

Source: Foster Family Handbook