Skip to Content
We only use cookies to record website visits. We do not store personal data.
By continuing, you agree to our cookie policy.
Back

Children and Youth in Danger

Children and Youth in Danger

Foster Care

Considering that the right of children and young people to grow up in a stable and safe family context that promotes their development is enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNICEF, 1989), the Host Family Care measure should be strengthened and implemented to the detriment of the Residential Care measure. To this end, the European Commission recommends that Member States implement concrete measures to progressively reduce the current residential care structures.

Image

Inclusion of Particularly Vulnerable Children and Young People

1 measures

1

Foster Care

Foster Care

  • What is it?

Foster Care is a measure to promote the rights and protection of children, with a transitional and temporary nature, which is aimed to provide the child or young person with a family environment, essential for their physical and emotional well-being and their harmonious development.

  • Who can be a host family?
  • A natural person;
  • Two persons married with each other or living in a de facto relationship; *
  • Two or more persons linked by kinship and who are members of the same household; *
  • None of these persons can be a relative of the foster child or young person.
* Only one of the family members is responsible for the foster care.
 
  • Foster care applying conditions:
Anyone who meets the following conditions can be a candidate for the host family care response:
  • To be aged over 25;
  • Not to be a candidate for adoption;
  • To have physical and mental health conditions, attested by medical certification;
  • To have adequate housing with hygiene and safety conditions to accommodate children and young people;
  • To be a person of good repute to carry out the host family care response;
  • Not to have been indicted by the judicial authority, charged, pronounced or convicted, even without the force of res judicata, for an intentional offence against life, physical integrity and personal freedom or sexual freedom or self-determination;
  • Not to be inhibited from the exercise of parental responsibilities, or have limited exercise of parental responsibilities because it poses a danger to the safety, health, moral values and education of the child.

  • How to apply/Where to get information

The Social Security Institute and the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa (Portuguese charitable organisation) are the only two entities with competence in this matter; therefore, if you are interested in becoming a host family and your residence is in the municipalities of Amadora, Cascais, Lisbon, Loures, Mafra, Odivelas , Oeiras, Sintra and Vila Franca de Xira, the entity responsible for the case examination is the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa.

In all other municipalities in Portugal, the responsible entity is the Social Security Institute.

  • For further information, click on the following links:

Social Security Institute.

 
  • Responsible entity
Social Security Institute (ISS)
 
Portuguese Charitable Organisation. (SCML)
 
  • Contact details:

ISS, IP: iss-acolhimentofamiliar@seg-social.pt

 
SCMLisboa: servico.acolhimentofamiliar@scml.pt