The foster assistant is the natural person, certified under the conditions of Ordinance no. 27/2024, employed by the general directorate of social assistance and child protection, who ensures at their 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 measure of placement, emergency placement for the child separated, temporarily or permanently, from their parents or, as the case may be, during the respite period of another foster assistant.

The evaluation request for the issuance of the foster assistant certificate is resolved within 90 calendar days from the date of registration at DGASPC Sibiu.

The evaluation requested through the above-mentioned application is carried out by a team, appointed by the management of the directorate, composed of a psychologist and a social worker, the latter generally also having the responsibility of preparing the final report, and includes the following stages:

a) social evaluation;

b) psychological evaluation.

The social evaluation is carried out by a social worker over a minimum of 4 meetings, and at the end of each meeting a meeting note is prepared containing the resulting observations and conclusions.

The psychological evaluation is carried out by a psychologist and involves at least 2 evaluation meetings and, as the case may be, counseling, and the results of the psychological evaluation and the formulated recommendations are recorded in clinical psychological evaluation sheets.

The social worker, together with the psychologist and the applicant, jointly establishes the meeting schedule. Depending on the particularities of each case, the social worker or, as the case may be, the psychologist may decide, with justification, on the necessity of holding additional meetings, communicating this decision to the applicant for updating the meeting schedule.

The meetings for the purpose of social and psychological evaluation take place at the applicant's home or at the directorate's headquarters. Each member of the evaluation team is obliged to conduct at least one of the evaluation meetings at the home or, as the case may be, the residence of the applicant.

After the social evaluation and psychological evaluation, in preparation for carrying out

the activity of foster assistant, the applicant participates in professional training courses. The training courses

are not completed by the applicant who is a university graduate in social work, psychology, or educational sciences.

After completing the evaluation stages and preparation for the activity of foster assistant, the members of the evaluation team prepare the final evaluation report of the ability to take care of, nurture, and educate a child or, as the case may be, several children.

The final evaluation report of the applicant’s ability to become a foster assistant contains:

a) a summary of the psychosocial information recorded in the meeting notes, clinical psychological evaluation sheets, and training report;

b) the motivation to become a foster assistant;

c) the applicant’s parenting abilities from the perspective of their capacity to respond to the needs and characteristics of the child separated temporarily or permanently from parents;

d) the evaluation team’s conclusions regarding the number of children the applicant can care for simultaneously, their age group, the ability to care for sibling groups, children with disabilities, and the ability to take in children in emergency placement or during the respite period of another foster assistant;

e) the proposal for issuing or, as the case may be, not issuing the foster assistant certificate.

When establishing the number of children, it is mandatory to check the compliance with the minimum requirements fulfilled by the dwelling in use by the applicant, relating to sanitary rooms, minimum sanitary room equipment, kitchen, minimum equipment with electrical installations, common-use spaces and installations for buildings with multiple dwellings, as provided in Annex 1 to the Housing Law no. 114/1996, republished, with subsequent amendments and additions.

The final evaluation report is communicated to the applicant within 10 working days from its registration at the directorate, with confirmation of receipt, by mail or electronic mail, at the address indicated by the applicant.

Throughout the evaluation process, the person requesting the foster assistant certificate is obliged to inform the directorate about any changes related to meeting the requirements provided by Ordinance no. 27/2024 regarding the conditions for obtaining the certificate, the certification procedure, and the status of the foster assistant, attaching supporting documents as applicable.

The applicant who has received the final evaluation report of their ability to become a foster assistant with a proposal for issuance of the certificate submits, at the DGASPC Sibiu headquarters, an application addressed to the child protection committee requesting the issuance of the foster assistant certificate, which is resolved within 30 calendar days from the date of registration at DGASPC Sibiu

The child protection committee, after analyzing the final evaluation report of the applicant’s ability to become a foster assistant, presented by a member of the evaluation team and hearing the applicant, rules by a reasoned decision on the approval or, as the case may be, rejection of the application for issuance of the foster assistant certificate. The foster assistant certificate is an annex to the committee's decision for child protection.

The child protection committee may, in justified situations, hear other persons living with the applicant, from whom it may request additional information deemed necessary for approving or, as the case may be, rejecting the application.

The foster assistant certificate is issued for an indefinite period and is approved every two years.

The foster assistant certificate mentions:

a) the identity data of the holder;

b) the number of children the certified person can simultaneously receive in placement, in the situation where they can care for several children;

c) the age group of the children;

d) the applicant's ability to care for children with disabilities;

e) the applicant's ability to take children in emergency placement;

f) the applicant's ability to take sibling groups in placement;

g) the applicant's ability to take children in the respite period of another foster assistant.

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