Everything for the child: Making grandparents into primary foster caregivers

This article investigates the image of an ideal foster grandparent as it is constructed by social workers. It draws upon 24 in-depth interviews with social workers from foster care agencies in the Czech Republic. We argue that social workers are key in the formulation and delivery of interventions with foster families and that understanding social workers’ expectations of the foster care provided by grandparents is crucial to understanding their services for foster children. Our findings, carefully contextualized in legislative, historical, and sociocultural contexts, reveal three related expectations that social workers have, while approaching foster families with grandparents. These expectations cover the characteristics of their ideal foster grandparent, who (1) is not a parent to their child, (2) is not a grandparent to their grandchild, and (3) is a therapeutical caregiver for their grandchild. Examining the expectations with which social workers enter grandfamilies underscores the need for reflection and supervision to minimize potential biases in social work practice. Moreover, given the specific dynamics of care and challenges that foster grandparents face, we argue for the necessity of grandparent-specific interventions.