The Department of Social Welfare is encouraging the use of foster parents to care for children abandoned due to disability and other factors.

The Department said foster parenting would provide nurturing family environments, which were associated with positive outcomes for children's development.

Mr Fred Sakyi Boafo, the Deputy Director, Child and Family Welfare Division of the Department, said that informed the training of 514 foster parents in various communities with 171 children in foster care.

Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed in private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent" or with a family member approved by the State.

Mr Boafo said this at a Training of Trainers workshop on a Manual for Caregivers of Children with Disability for Residential Children's Home.

He said formal foster care was typically authorised and arranged by an administrative or judicial authority, which also provided oversight to ensure the best interest of the child.

Mr Boafo said the foster care system in Ghana was backed by the Foster Care Regulations, 2018 (LI 2361).

He said the importance of the system to national socioeconomic development necessitated the development of the foster care operational manual (2018), a foster parent training manual by the Department to help strengthen formal foster care in Ghana.