Vania Pinto has recently appeared on a news report, broadcast on Portuguese television channel SIC, as an expert on foster care. Vania is currently the Assistant Welfare Dean at LMH. She is also a DPhil Student conducting research in the field of foster care placement success.
From all children and young people who were removed from their families and are currently living in alternative care (e.g. foster care or residential care), Portugal is the country in Europe with the lowest percentage of children and young people in foster care. The news report intends to highlight this and point to why foster care is a better type of placement, for the majority of children and young people who are in alternative care, in comparison with residential care. You can watch the report here (in Portuguese).
Vania's doctoral research aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the role of foster carers, and as part of this she also explored the associations between parenting and professional skills of foster carers and emotional, social, and behavioural outcomes of children and young people, in England and in Portugal.
