According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, children have the right to voice their opinions and participate in decision-making in matters affecting their lives. Furthermore, professionals working with children have the responsibility to always make the best interests of the child the priority when contemplating decisions that have an impact on the child, including by ensuring that the child’s concerns are paid attention to and their opinion is taken into consideration. However, studies indicate that the opposite occurs in practice and that decision-making in child protection cases often excludes children’s views, especially in alternative care. In this qualitative study, 31 foster children’s perspectives were gathered through in-depth semi-structured and focus group interviews with the aim of exploring the children’s participation and perspectives based on their lived experiences within the context of child protection removal practice in Estonia. Findings indicate several obstacles that hinder children’s meaningful participation, including not receiving adequate or truthful information about their removal and placement. Furthermore, they had no trustworthy adult to talk to and, therefore, they lacked opportunities to discuss their views or concerns with someone capable of acting on them. These findings suggest that children’s active and meaningful participation in alternative care requires more attention and implications in practice.

根据《联合国儿童权利公约》，儿童有权就影响其生活的事项发表意见和参与决策。此外，从事儿童工作的专业人员有责任在考虑对儿童有影响的决定时始终将儿童的最大利益放在首位，包括确保关注儿童的关切并考虑他们的意见。然而，研究表明，实践中的情况恰恰相反，儿童保护案件中的决策往往会排除儿童的意见，特别是在替代性照料中。在这项定性研究中，通过深入的半结构化和焦点小组访谈收集了 31 名寄养儿童的观点，目的是根据他们在爱沙尼亚儿童保护搬迁实践中的生活经历，探索儿童的参与和观点。调查结果表明存在一些阻碍儿童有意义参与的障碍，包括没有收到关于他们的迁移和安置的充分或真实信息。此外，他们没有可以与之交谈的值得信赖的成年人，因此，他们没有机会与能够对他们采取行动的人讨论他们的观点或疑虑。这些发现表明，儿童积极和有意义地参与替代照料需要更多的关注和实践中的影响。此外，他们没有可以与之交谈的值得信赖的成年人，因此，他们没有机会与能够对他们采取行动的人讨论他们的观点或疑虑。这些发现表明，儿童积极和有意义地参与替代照料需要更多的关注和实践中的影响。此外，他们没有可以与之交谈的值得信赖的成年人，因此，他们没有机会与能够对他们采取行动的人讨论他们的观点或疑虑。这些发现表明，儿童积极和有意义地参与替代照料需要更多的关注和实践中的影响。