Introduction. The article develops concepts for the formation of social competence of foster parents in the context of theories of effective management New Public Management and Good Governance. Foster parents are persons who have accepted orphans and children left without parental care for family upbringing. The family form of placement of orphans and children left without parental care includes: adoption, guardianship and trusteeship, foster and adoptive families. The relevance of the formation of social competence of foster parents is evidenced by the fact that, despite some actions on the part of the state, the current percentage of return of orphans and children left without parental care back to the state institutions in this case is still maintained.
Materials and methods. Scientific works devoted to the concepts of New Public Management and Good Governance and the phenomenon of social competence have been analyzed, as well as normative legal acts of the Russian Federation in the sphere of social policy, which regulate the transfer of orphans and children left without parental care to foster families and the provision of social services to substitute parents. Two methods of document analysis have been used: traditional document analysis, as well as systematic and logical methods of legal interpretation.
Results. The application of analytical procedures revealed that at the moment the policy in relation to substitute families is implemented by the Russian Federation on the basis of the principles of both concepts of public administration, such as: de-centralisation of administration, customer-centricity, efficiency of public administration, transparency and openness of public servant activity, and the rule of law. The effectiveness of the existing system is reflected in the results of the Concept of State Family Policy of the Russian Federation until 2025: the percentage of secondary orphanhood has decreased, the number of abandoned newborns has decreased, and the proportion of orphaned children has become smaller. The project aimed at keeping children in their own families is now being implemented in some regions.
Discussion. The similarity of the transition period between the two state-administrative paradigms in the Russian Federation and other countries has been underlined. At the moment, there is quiet an insufficient research volume devoted to the social competence of foster parents, therefore the article outlines the need for interdisciplinary research on the social competence of foster parents to improve the mechanisms for the formation of the phenomenon under study. It is especially necessary to conduct regional studies that would serve as a basis for making the necessary management decisions that would contribute to increasing the level of social competence of foster parents through improving the mechanisms for the formation of social competence.