Abstract: Submission #94

Abstract This paper examines the factors that influence the decision-making processes of social workers providing foster care services, with a focus on quality management and enhanced social services. Evidence shows that social workers adopt a mixed approach, leaning strongly toward intuition in decision-making. The study on which this paper is based is qualitative namely a case study design, informed by the explorative, descriptive and contextual designs. The populations of the study were social workers rendering foster care services in government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and their supervisors. Triangulation of data collection methods were utilised, namely, case file analysis and semi-structured interviews with social workers and supervisors. This paper aims to shed light on the decision-making processes of social workers in all phases of rendering foster care services, contributing to the improvement of services and outcomes in this critical domain.