SISUKAS – Foster Child at School

Abstract

Introduction

Children placed in foster care have a greater risk of experiencing challenges at school compared to other children. The Sisukas operating model aims to support the schooling of children placed in foster care through multi-actor cooperation between professionals, assessment of the need for support, and individual support and its monitoring. In Sweden, Finland and Norway, the impact of the operating model on the school performance, cognitive abilities and psychosocial wellbeing of children aged 6–14 has been studied. The Swedish Skolfam operating model and the Danish LUKoP operating model are comparable to the Finnish Sisukas.

Objective and research question

This systematic literature review assesses the effectiveness of the Sisukas operating model on the basis of research literature. The review answers the following questions: In how much detail has the Sisukas operating model been described? Does the Sisukas operating model have evidence-based effectiveness, applicable to Finland, in the school performance, cognitive abilities and psychosocial wellbeing of children placed in foster care?

Data and research methods

A systematic literature search was carried out using the PCC search strategy (Population, Concept, Context), which focused on the question: What research has been done on the Sisukas method? The following keywords were used: P = children of primary school age, adolescents, foster parents and parents, C = Sisukas, foster children at school, SkolFam, Skolsatsning inom familjehemsvården, Sammen for Læring, Skolestøtte til børn i familiepleje. Context (C) was omitted to avoid an excessive restriction of the results of the search. The primary area of interest in the search was effectiveness studies carried out on the intervention. A systematic literature search was carried out for the following six reference databases: MEDLINE, APA PsycInfo, CINAHL, ERIC, Web of Science and Scopus. In addition, a search for publications in Finnish was performed on the Finna.fi service, and the search was supplemented by a manual search. The accuracy of the method description in the manuals and other written materials maintained by the home base was evaluated.

Results

The evaluation included six Nordic studies on the operating model of schooling support for children placed in foster care. A comparison between groups had been done in two studies: in a quasi-experimental study conducted in Sweden and in a randomised controlled trial conducted in Denmark. In the quasi-experimental study, positive changes were observed in visual reasoning (p = 0.01; d = 0.42; 95% CI -0.01–0.86), cognitive abilities (p = 0.033; d = 0.36; 95% CI -0.07–0.79) and spelling(p = 0.029; d = 0.26; 95% CI -0.21–0.73). In the randomised controlled trial, positive changes were observed in word reading rate (p = 0.02; d = -0.21; 95% confidence interval not reported), cognitive ability (p = 0.02; d = 0.34; 95% confidence interval not reported) and linguistic understanding (p = 0.03; d = 0.41; 95% confidence interval not reported).

Methodology evaluation

The methodology evaluation is based on a good description of the operating model and verified evidence of the improvement of school performance and cognitive abilities in children aged 6–14 placed in foster care. Support for the implementation of the operating model is available, such as training, a Finnish-language manual and other material, as well as an online learning platform.