“A highly demanding measure”: practitioner contributions to improving practice and policy for foster families (2023) by Francisco Branco is a report on a study into foster care in Portugal. The study is part of a larger research project for a Social Work PhD and is focused on the needs and experiences of foster families.

Francisco Branco argues that there are very few foster care families in Portugal; instead residential care is favoured. However, foster care demands more work from social workers, eg, in matching a children to the most suitable foster famil. Therefore, there is a need to increase investment in foster care, because, as he says “Growing up in a family environment is a child’s international and legal right.”