Childhood is a special period in a person’s life when a child is depended on adults, and especially on parents. If for various reasons parental care is lost, and thus a child’s life, health and upbringing is endangered and his/her life situation is changed, the child acquires the status of an orphan and a child deprived of parental care, and this entitles the child to full support by the State and benefits prescribed by law. Placement of such children for foster care is within the responsibility of the relevant competent authorities of the State and involves placement of such children with families of other citizens or with children’s residential care institutions within the system of education, healthcare and social protection.

The purpose of the article is to analyze the approaches which have been developed in the law doctrine with regard to understanding the forms of arranging foster care for a child deprived of parental care, and also to present the author’s own vision of overcoming orphanhood in Ukraine by introducing family-based forms of placement of such children legalized at the level of law, which would have priority as compared to forms involving residential care institutions, and non-defined family-based forms of child care.

The author has established that the forms of family-based foster care for a child facing adverse circumstances, which are regulated at the level of law, are not exhaustive. There are also other forms, such as actual care for an orphan child or a child deprived of parental care in the family of a certain person without the relevant legal basis. In the even of actual care, all of the parental powers and authorities are implemented, except for the eligibility to protection of parental rights, and therefore this form as a phenomenon valuable for society requires specific legal regulation.

The article substantiates that each of the legalized forms of family-based child care (foster caregiving, foster family, family-type children’s home) has its respective specific aspects, but their common feature is that one of the elements underpinning their actual occurrence is the relevant agreement: on foster caregiving; on placement of a child with a foster family for upbringing and cohabitation; on organization of operation of a familytype children’s home. These agreements are classified as family-law agreements on social support of children facing adverse circumstances due to orphanhood, homelessness, conflicts, ill-treatment in the family etc. The purpose of these agreements is to help a child, parents/legal representatives (if they, for example, consented to foster caregiving) overcome the adverse life circumstances which the child (the parents) face, by proving social support. Although these agreements are not standalone legal facts which entail the relevant legal relations, the legal nature of these agreements should nevertheless take account of the specifics of the agreement as a legal fact formed under the influence of the relations which it mediates.

List of legal documents

Legislation

1. Konventsiia pro prava dytyny, pryiniata Heneralnoiu Asambleieiu OON 20 lystopada 1989 r., ratyfikovana postanovoiu Verkhovnoi Rady Ukrainskoi RSR Convention on the Rights of the Child Adopted by the UN General Assembly on November 20, 1989, Ratified by Resolution of the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR № 789-XII vid 27 liutoho 1991 r. <http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/995_021> (accessed: 10.11.2018) (in Ukrainian).

2. Poriadok oplaty posluh patronatnoho vykhovatelia ta vyplaty sotsialnoi dopomohy na utrymannia dytyny v simi patronatnoho vykhovatelia, zatverdzheno postanovoiu Kabinetu Ministriv Ukrainy [Procedure of Payment for Foster Caregiver Services and Payment of Social Allowance for Child Maintenance in the Foster Caregiver Family Approved by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine] vid 16 bereznia 2017 r. № 148 <http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/148-2017-%D0%BF> (accessed: 10.11.2018) (in Ukrainian).

3. Poriadok provadzhennia orhanamy opiky ta pikluvannia diialnosti, poviazanoi iz zakhystom prav dytyny, zatverdzheno postanovoiu Kabinetu Ministriv Ukrainy [Procedure for Implementation of Activities Protecting the Rights of the Child by Custody and Guardianship Agencies Approved by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine] vid 24 veresnia 2008 r. № 866 <http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/ show/866-2008-%D0%BF#n136> (accessed: 10.11.2018) (in Ukrainian).

4. Poriadok stvorennia ta diialnosti simi patronatnoho vykhovatelia, vlashtuvannia, perebuvannia dytyny v simi patronatnoho vykhovatelia, zatverdzheno postanovoiu Kabinetu Ministriv Ukrainy [Procedure for Establishment and Operation of a Foster Caregiver Family, and a Child’s Placement with and Stay in the Foster Caregiver Family Approved by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine] vid 16 bereznia 2017 r. № 148 <http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/148-2017-%D0%BF> (accessed: 10.11.2018) (in Ukrainian).

5. Poriadok vzaiemodii orhaniv derzhavnoi vlady, orhaniv mistsevoho samovriaduvannia, zakladiv ta ustanov pid chas zabezpechennia sotsialnoho zakhystu ditei, yaki perebuvaiut u skladnykh zhyttievykh obstavynakh, u tomu chysli takykh, shcho mozhut zahrozhuvaty yikh zhyttiu ta zdoroviu, zatverdzheno postanovoiu Kabinetu Ministriv Ukrainy [Procedure for Interaction of Public Authorities, Local Self-Government Bodies, Institutions and Facilities When Ensuring Social Protection of Children Who Face Adverse Circumstances, Including Those Which Can Endanger Their Life and Health] vid 3 zovtnia 2018 r. № 800 <http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/800-2018%D0%BF#n9> (accessed: 10.11.2018) (in Ukrainian).

 6. Pro okhoronu dytynstva On the Protection of Childhood: Zakon Ukrainy [the Law of Ukraine] vid 26 kvitnia 2001 r. № 2402-ІІІ. Vidomosti Verkhovnoi Rady Ukrainy. 2001. № 30. St. 142 (in Ukrainian).

7. Pro sotsialni posluhy [On Social Services]: Zakon Ukrainy [the Law of Ukraine] vid 19 chervnia 2003 r. № 966-ІV. Vidomosti Verkhovnoi Rady Ukrainy. 2003. № 45. St. 358 (in Ukrainian).

8. Simeinyi kodeks Ukrainy [the Family Code of Ukraine]: Zakon Ukrainy [the Law of Ukraine] vid 10 sichnia 2002 r. № 2947-Ш. Vidomosti Verkhovnoi Rady Ukrainy. 2002. № 21-22. St. 135 (in Ukrainian).

9. Tsyvilnyi kodeks Ukrainy [The Civil Code of Ukraine]: Zakon Ukrainy [the Law of Ukraine] vid 16 sichnia 2003 r. № 435-IV <https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/435-15> (accessed: 13.02.2019) (in Ukrainian).

10. Typovyi dohovir pro patronat nad dytynoiu, zatverdzheno Postanovoiu Kabinetu Ministriv Ukrainy [Standard Agreement on Foster Caregiving Approved by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine] vid 16 bereznia 2017 № 148 <http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/148-2017-%D0%BF> (accessed: 10.11.2018) (in Ukrainian).

Authored books

11. Perhament A, Opeka y popechytelstvo [Guardianship and Custody] (Yuridicheskaya literatura 1966) (in Russian).

12. Rozghon O, Dohovory u simeinomu pravi Ukrainy: monohrafiia [Contracts in Family Law of Ukraine] (In Yure 2018) (in Ukrainian).

 Edited books

13. Bodnar T, ‘Rol dohovoru v rehuliuvanni simeinykh vidnosyn’ [‘Role of Contract in the Regulation of Family Relations’] v Bodnar T ta Dzera O (red), Simeine pravo Ukrainy: pidruchnyk [Family Law of Ukraine: Textbook] (Yurinkom Inter 2016) (in Ukrainian).

14. Borysova V ta Zhylinkova I (rеd), Simeine pravo: pidruchnyk [Family Law: Textbook] (Pravo 2012) (in Ukrainian).

15. Zhylinkova I (rеd), Simeinyi kodeks Ukrainy: naukovo-praktychnyi komentar [The Family Code of Ukraine: Scientific and Practical Commentary] (Pravo 2008) (in Ukrainian).

Journal articles

16. Korotkova L, ‘Pravovoi status faktycheskykh vospytatelei detei’ [‘The Legal Status of Actual Child Caregivers’] (1983) 3 Pravovedenye 83 (in Russian).

Conference paper

17. Borysova V, ‘Dohovir u simeino-pravovii sferi’ [‘Contract in the Family-Law Domain’] v Aktualni problemy pryvatnoho prava: dohovir yak pravova forma rehuliuvannia pryvatnykh vidnosyn: materialy naukovo-praktychnoi konferencii [Topical Issues of Private Law: Contract as a Legal Form Regulating Private Relations: Materials of Scientific and Practical Conference] (Pravo 2017) (in Ukrainian).

18. Tatarinceva E, ‘Reformirovanie sistemy institucional’noj zaboty o detjah, ostavshihsja bez popechenija roditelej v Rossii, Anglii i Japonii’ [‘Reforming of the System of Institutional Care for Children Left Without Parental Care in Russia, England and Japan’] v Problemy tsyvilnoho prava ta protsesu: materialy naukovo-praktychnoi konferencii, prysviachenoi pamiati profesesora O. A. Pushkina [Challenging Issues of Civil Law and Procedure: Materials of the Scientific and Practical Conference Dedicated to the Memory of Professor O. A. Pushkin] (KhNUVS 2010) (in Russian).