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The guide offers a clear regulatory framework for fostering and alternative care, unifying professional standards and practices for service providers. It also introduces performance evaluation tools and monitoring mechanisms to ensure high-quality foster care, while strengthening collaboration among relevant institutions to achieve comprehensive and sustainable social welfare outcomes.
Dr Jassim Al Hammadi, Director of the Knowledge Office, emphasised that fostering is a deeply humanitarian issue rooted in Islamic principles of compassion and care. He explained that children deprived of parental care often lack a secure environment for growth and emotional stability. The guide scientifically addresses the psychological and social challenges of foster care — including stigma, emotional distress, and difficulties in social integration — and outlines ways to overcome them.
Dr Al Hammadi noted that alternative care systems provide dignified solutions through foster families, care homes, and community programmes. He added that foster families’ motivations vary — from maternal instincts to humanitarian or religious reasons — but all share the goal of offering children a safe and nurturing life. The guide also explores the importance of supporting children who experience emotional instability or multiple placements, underscoring the need for professional supervision to promote psychological adaptation.
The new guide covers all legal and social aspects of children deprived of care, including orphans, abandoned children, and those of unknown parentage. It details the approved procedures, regulatory controls, and standards applied in foster families and care homes, ensuring safe environments and effective social inclusion.
Dr Sherif Abu Shadi, the department’s consultant, noted that the guide includes 25 sections addressing legal, social, psychological, behavioural, and procedural dimensions of fostering. It also outlines children’s rights under UAE law — from education and healthcare to cultural and family rights. He highlighted that this is the first fostering guide to introduce a comprehensive evaluation matrix for assessing the quality and efficiency of foster care, alongside digital indicators to select eligible foster families based on clear, measurable criteria.
Sheikha Shaheen Al Suwaidi explained that the guide also tackles one of the most delicate aspects of fostering — how to inform a fostered child about their social background. She stressed that this stage requires professional guidance and emotional sensitivity to preserve the child’s psychological balance.
This second edition represents a valuable contribution to the UAE’s social development framework, enriching the national library of social care resources and promoting unified standards and practices in alternative family care. It underscores Sharjah’s ongoing commitment to ensuring safe, nurturing, and equitable futures for children deprived of social care.
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