Sam Smethers, Chief Executive
The challenges for kinship carers &
for professionals
Kinship Care – the first choice for children
6th June 2013
about us
We champion the role of grandparents and
the wider family in children’s lives.
• campaign for change
• provide evidence, policy solutions and training
• Advise and support grandparents and family
carers
• Work with professionals to improve practice
our work
• Reach 5,000 kinship carers through our Peer Support
Network – events, newsletter, campaigning, survey
• Provide advice and information to kinship carers
advice@grandaprentsplus.org.uk
0300 123 7015
• Co-produced with Mentor the Kinship Care Guide for
England
• Facilitate the Kinship Care Group for Professionals –
providing peer support
• Range of training and support for kinship carers and
professionals
What is kinship care?
The care, nurturing and protection of children who are
separated from their parents or whose parents are unable
to provide that care and support. Instead this care is
provided by grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles or other
relatives, godparents, step-grandparents, or other adults
who have a relationship with or connection to the child.
This may be a permanent arrangement or temporary,
formal or informal.
kinship carers
• Have an uncertain status in a system not designed
for them
• 200,000 family and friends carers raising 300,000
children (173,000 children in 2001 census)
• Half the children have a disability or special needs
• Majority do not have ‘looked after’ status (only 5-7%)
• Grandparents - largest group, then siblings
• More children in kinship care than in foster care
challenges
For kinship carers
• Events – what has happened prior to placement?
• Experience – what happens once the child arrives?
• Role and responsibility - raising the child(ren)
events
• Parental alcohol or substance misuse, abuse or neglect,
bereavement, imprisonment, disability or ill-health
• Very similar to looked after children
• Intensive periods of support prior to placement - 65%
(20% occasional))
• Own emotions - anger, betrayal, loss, guilt, resentment,
fear, anxiety, love
• Loss of control, no choice
What if we said no? Grandparents Plus 2010
experience
• Lack of information – didn’t understand the options
• Lack of respect, understanding, support
• Caring role without rights or entitlements
• Financial, practical and emotional cost
• A legal battle (77% legal proceedings)
• Reward is in raising the child
What if we said no? Grandparents Plus 2010
experience
• 3 out of 4 experience financial hardship (Farmer &
Moyers 2008)
• 86% under 65, 41% under 55.
• Half (47%) give up work, 31% reduce hours
• 35% single parent grandparents
• Only 1 in 3 receive any LA financial/practical support
• 7 out of 10 are stressed, depressed or isolated
(Grandparents Plus, 2010, 2012)
Role & responsibility
• Changing family relationships/couple relationship
• Managing contact
• Merging households
• Housing – overcrowding, moving
• Work – combining work and care
• Money – significant loss in income
Role & responsibility
We surveyed 81 kinship carers and received 58 responses:
• 93% say raising a kinship child is more challenging than
raising their own
• Each coping with 5 or 6 different parenting challenges
We asked them what they needed help with:
• 79% (44) - to manage their own emotions
• 70% (39) - to manage contact with a parent
• 66% (37) - to cope with child behaviour issues
• 63% (35) - to deal with their child’s anger
• 59% (33) - to deal with children’s past traumas
• 47% (26) - to cope with children’s problems at school
(Grandparents Plus, 2013 Relative Experience - forthcoming)
Role & responsibility
Role & responsibility
65% have sought professional help:
47% (27) Children’s services
34% (20) Children’s school
33% (19) CAMHS
29% (17) GP
24% (14) Health visitor or other health worker
15% (9) Counsellor
14% (8) Children’s centre/nursery
Role & responsibility
Role & responsibility
• 65% (37) had sought professional help
• 32% (12) found it helpful
Of those who did:
• 12 felt their particular situation as a kinship carer
was not understood
• 9 said the needs of the kinship child were not
understood
• 12 said they needed more support than was
offered
• 6 said they received no support
Role & responsibility
Children in kin care
• Report feeling loved. Outcomes tend to be good (Selwyn
& Farmer 2013).
• Tend to be older (75% of looked after children are aged
5 or over – DfE stats)
• more likely to be with brothers or sisters
• More likely to stay in same school/community
• About identity as well as relationships
• Stability, permanence, continuity
challenges
For professionals
• Requirements – understanding and implementing
• Resources – to do what you need to do
• Understanding –Do you really understand kinship care?
How is kinship care different from fostering/adoption?
How has your training prepared you for (whole) family
work?
requirements
• Child’s welfare is paramount
• Statutory requirement - consider wider family
first (Adoption & Children Act 2002, CYP Act
2008)
• Statutory guidance on family and friends care
(2011)
requirements
Statutory requirement to consider wider family first.
Stat guidance requires consultation with kinship
carers then:
1. A policy in place (by 30 Sept 2011) - 47%, now
30% still without a policy (FRG).
2. A named person responsible
3. Support determined by needs of child
4. Info about sources of financial help
5. Contact arrangements
requirements
Statutory guidance cont.
6. Family group conferencing
7. Local support groups
8. Fostering services for F&F foster carers
9. Advice and info on different orders (SGO, RO,
Adoption)
10. Complaints Procedure
resources
• Care applications up by 20% since April 2012
(CAFCASS). 908 applications in April – highest ever.
• 9,000 shortage of foster carers (Fostering Network)
• Kinship care is part of the solution
Debbie Jones (ADCS):
“…adoption is not the only option when seeking a permanent home for
children in care, and that Special Guardianship Orders and Residence
Orders can offer a quicker solution in some cases, and particularly with
groups for whom it is harder to find suitable adopters, such as sibling
groups or older children.”
resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
Heavy caseload – can’t do what you want to do
Targeted at looked after children
Discretionary support – more difficult to provide
Wide variations from local authority to local authority
Support doesn’t follow needs of the child (Hunt, 2012)
But support can be cost-effective way to prevent
placement breakdown
understanding
Barriers
• Attitude - family is the problem not the answer
• Training – lack of preparation for whole family
work
• Pressure – can’t do the job well
• Not seeing the differences
understanding
Kinship care – key differences:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Unplanned
Prior relationship with the child, shared experiences
Relationship with parent – contact/ongoing care
No entitlements to support
Lack of training or preparation
Adverse impact on own well-being
• “What choice have we got? We just do it”
What’s changing?
• Focus on adoption – we argue for permanence
• Foster to adopt – clause 1 of C&F Bill
• 6 month time limit – pre-proceedings is key,
FGCs increasingly important early on
• Reduced access to legal aid - 44% received
legal aid, 33% spent up to £5K (GPlus, 2010)
• Move away from independent social workers
• More LAs supporting SGOs – preventing
placement breakdown. Implications of
successful legal challenges against LA s
What needs to change
• System meets the needs of all children in care
and on the edge of care
• Children in kinship care recognised as children
in need with access to services & support
• Shift of resources towards prevention
• Statutory guidance fully implemented
• Kinship carers treated with dignity and respect
• National financial allowance
• Leave entitlements for kinship carers similar to
adoption leave
Support Network
References
Farmer & Moyers, Fostering Effective Family and Friends Placements
(2008)
Hunt, Waterhouse & Lutman, Keeping them in the Family BAAF, 2008
Hunt, Waterhouse, Understanding family and friends care: the
relationship between need, support and legal status, FRG, 2012
Selwyn & Nandy Spotlight on Kinship Care University of Bristol, Buttle
UK 2011
Selwyn, Farmer, Meakings & Vaisey. The poor relations? Buttle UK
2013
Wellard & Wheatley What if we said no? Grandparents Plus, 2010
Wellard Too old to care? Grandparents Plus 2011
Wellard and Gautier, Giving up the day job? Grandparents Plus, 2012
Wellard & Cardy, Relative Experience, Grandparents Plus 2013
(forthcoming)