The aim of the study was to determine the structure of social competences of professional foster parents using the Social Competence Questionnaire A. Matczak (2001). The study included 167 professional foster parents carrying out family emergency tasks in the Śląskie and Małopolskie voivodships. Research results show that more than half of the respondents are characterized by an average, and more than one-third by a high level of social competence. Compared to the results of the general population, foster mothers have significantly higher competences on the intimacy scale, and foster fathers on the assertiveness scale. In comparison with representatives of other social professions (nurses, family assistants), foster mothers have significantly higher social competences in the intimacy scale compared to nurses. In comparison with family assistants, the results obtained are comparable.

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International research demonstrates that one of the most important predictors of foster parents satisfaction is a properly functioning system of foster family support. The article aims to answer the question: how do professional foster parents evaluate their relationships with the institutions which form the district system of foster family support? The research was conducted in qualitative strategy based on the qualitative case study method. The research technique applied involved semi-structured interviews, executed with 10 professional foster families, operating in one district in the province of Silesia. The research conclusions allow a better understanding of the needs of foster parents within the scope of support offered by the system of foster care.

We researched the extent to which professional foster families fulfil their tasks to reintegrate families, what attitudes professional foster families assume towards the idea of reintegration, and to what extent and how professional foster families support a child separated from his or her family and parents in the process of reintegration. The research examined case studies of a sample of 58 professional foster families functioning as emergency shelter families in the Province of Silesia. The most Polish professional foster families assume a negative attitude towards reintegration. Moreover, some of the parents who participated in the research thought that most biological parents with difficulties should be deprived of their parental rights. The result of such attitudes is that foster parents make it difficult, in a variety of ways, for the biological parents to contact their child placed in foster care. Foster parents' full commitment to work related to restoring and maintaining emotional bonds between the children in foster care and their families is rarely noticeable. The foster families participating in the research were committed to an even lesser extent to the process of support for biological parents in developing their parental skills and attempts to have their child care rights restored.