The aim of the seminar is to explore the journey of foster care over the past 40 years and to look ahead to examine its future and the challenges it faces. This seminar will also have a number of celebratory objectives:

• To celebrate 40 years since the first international conference which led to IFCO’s establishment two years later in 1981

• To celebrate 30 years since the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

• To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the UN General Assembly’s Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children in 2009