1. Kinship care Joan Hunt Senior Research Fellow Oxford Centre for Family Law and Policy

2. A multiplicity of arrangements • Fostered by kin approved as foster carers • Special guardianship or adoption • Residence order • Privately fostered • Informal

3. Numbers • 6900 in approved foster placements in 2008 (16% all foster placements; 12% all looked after children) + • 11646 ‘children in need’ in 2005 + • ? 18000- 28000 others • Total guesstimate 200,000-300, 000 (1.7% to 2.5% child population) (Richards and Tapsfield, 2003)

4. Kinship carers are typically grandparents • 62% children placed with kin through care proceedings (Hunt et al, 2008) • 45% children looked after (Farmer and Moyers, 2008) • 42% children in need (Broad, 2001) • Guesstimate: 100,000 grandparents caring for children under 13 (Richards and Tapsfield, 2003)

5. The reasons for care Survey of grandparent carers (Richards 2001) • 24% parental inability to care, including abuse, neglect and domestic violence • 23% parental desertion, a substantial proportion resulting from drug/alcohol abuse • 16% family breakdown • 13% parental illness, often mental illness ; • 10% parental death, often also involving substance abuse, mental illness or violence

6. Children’s prior experiences similar to those in unrelated foster care

7. Potential benefits for children • Continuity of experience & relationships • Security and belonging • Fewer placement moves • Less stigmatising?

8. Many children do well in kinship care • Hunt et al, 2008 • 47% no problems at all • 81% problems in only one or two areas of functioning • Farmer and Moyers, 2008 • Children doing as well as those in unrelated care • 52% both groups behavioural/emotional difficulties • 78% improvement since placement (77% unrelated) • 68% positive view of themselves (63%)

9. Carers need support • Challenging children • Challenging circumstances • High levels of stress • May need as much, or more help than unrelated carers • Usually get less

10. What carers need • Readily accessible information and advice • Financial support • Practical help • Professional help with and for children • Peer support

11. Conclusion • Through kinship care the extended family makes a vital contribution to the welfare of children who cannot remain with their birth parents • This contribution is ‘officially’ recognised and ‘promoted’ • Policies and systems to support this unique form of care have been slow to develop. • Government have promised a ‘new framework for family and friends care’

12. How to support kinship carers more effectively: recommendations from the Kinship Care Alliance • The uniqueness of kinship care needs to be recognised • Cross-departmental working group to develop policy • Guidance to LA’s on promoting and supporting kinship care • Collection of statistics on children being raised by relatives • Systems need to be developed to meet both the short and long-term needs of carers. • Right to assessment of need • LA statutory duty to establish/commission support services • Government funding to resource this • Financial support