The number of enquiries made toward the NFCA have doubled in 2015. This was the conclusion derrived from an analysis of complaints and requests made by foster parents and parties interested in the improvement of the foster care system.

In the first six months of the year 600 inquiries, complaints and alerts have been registered by the NFCA. In half a year more than 60 people have inquired about how to become foster parents, 50 foster parents have looked for advice in connection with the adoption of their foster children, while another 100 people have reported an unprofessional attitude or experienced difficulties in their communication with social workers.

In the last five yers the NFCA has provided mainly professional consultations on how to become a foster parent (410) and received signals about the lack of adequate support by social workers (297). More than 115 foster parents have complained about the lack of information they received about the children before a placement, 110 have asked for advice on how to deal with the emotional state and behaviour of their charges. The fewest complaints were those related to a lack of support toward foster parents on the part of doctors (12), but in the last five years there have been an increasing number of complaints concerning the lack of tolerance toward foster children in the educational system. 

In 2015 the lawyer Angela Nikolova brought action against the expunging of a foster parent from the foster parent register in NFCA’s first legal case. Some serious omissions in the support of the social workers charged with the foster family and a subsequent branding of the family as unable to cope - a common practice in the country. 

The National Foster Care Association is a non-profit organization in which foster parents from across the whole country take part as volunteers. The Association helps foster parents by providing them with information, mediation and consultations and organises social events for children and youth in foster families. On a national level, the association stands for the rights of children to grow up in a family.  

Information, advice and assistance can be sought at tel. +359 879 279 281.