General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection Arad*

The professional foster carer is the individual, certified according to the law, who through the activity carried out at their home provides the growth, care, and education necessary for the harmonious development of the children received in foster care.

Who can be a professional foster carer?

The professional foster carer can be a person who:

-has at least 10 grades of education

-is between the ages of 25 - 52, at the time of evaluation

-has full legal capacity, and through their behavior in society, health status, and psychological profile, provides guarantees for properly fulfilling the obligations of a parent, related to their own children;

-has at their disposal a dwelling that covers the needs for food preparation, hygiene, education, and rest for its users, including those of the children to be received in foster care;

-has the consent of the entire family they live with, to accept and take care of a child in their home;

-a person who carries out salaried work, only on the condition of terminating the individual employment contract under which the salaried activity was carried out

Cannot be a professional foster carer

-a person who has suffered a conviction by a court decision that is final, for intentionally committing a crime;

-a parent who has lost parental rights or whose child has been declared abandoned by a final court decision

-a person who suffers from chronic communicable diseases

How can you become a professional foster carer?

Persons residing in Arad county who are interested in becoming professional foster carers should contact for more information the Case Management Service for Children – Foster Care within DGASPC Arad, str. Iustin Marsieu no. 22 A, ground floor room 7, tel. 0257/250325 where they will submit an evaluation request accompanied by the documents listed below.

Following the submission of the evaluation request, the applicant’s capacity to care for children will be assessed. This evaluation can take up to 90 days and during this period, the applicant and their family members will be involved in various activities.

The evaluation procedure of the applicant and their family consists of 2 stages:

-the initial evaluation stage

-the training stage

The certificate is issued by the Arad Child Protection Commission and is valid for 3 years.

The maternal assistant is the natural person, certified under the conditions of this ordinance, employed by the general directorate of social assistance and child protection, who ensures at their own home or, as the case may be, at their residence, the upbringing, care, and education of the child during the application of the special protection placement measure, the emergency placement measure for the child temporarily or permanently separated from their parents, or, as the case may be, during the respite period of another maternal assistant.

The applicant for the Maternal Assistant Certificate submits the Evaluation Request for the issuance of the maternal assistant certificate (Annex 2 Form, O 1142/2024) to the institution’s secretariat, where it is registered, and the deputy general director of social assistance assigns it for evaluation based on the applicant’s domicile.

To streamline activity, each team of specialists is assigned a certain area of the county and municipality in which they carry out their activity.

The evaluation of the applicant is carried out by a team of specialists consisting of a social worker and psychologist, and other specialists may also be involved as needed, at the recommendation of the social worker designated as case manager for the maternal assistant (MCAM) by the order of the deputy general director of social assistance, Case Manager Maternal Assistant Order (DMC). The members of the evaluation team prepare the Final Evaluation Report (Annex 8 Form, O 1142/2024)

The maternal assistant case manager takes over the request and the file assigned by the deputy general director of social assistance and registers the documents in the department’s entry-exit register (RII), then drafts the Case Manager Maternal Assistant Order and submits it for approval.

After receiving the request and verifying the documents submitted in the file, the case manager for MA (MCAM) starts the process of evaluating the applicant and their family.