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Contents

1. Purpose and Scope of Guidance
2. Key Objectives of Kinship Care  
3. Possible Advantages of Kinship Care
4. Possible Disadvantages of Kinship Care 
5. Status of Children Placed with Family Members  
6. Planning Kinship Care Placements 
7. Family Group Conferences  
8. Assessment of Kinship Carers 
9. Checks before Placement
10. Financial Support for Placements with Friends or Family Members
11. Friends and Family Members as Permanent Carers 

1. Purpose and Scope of Guidance

This guidance applies to children placed with a family member or friend in circumstances where the child is not Looked After. 

The placement is different from a Looked After Placement with Relatives or Friends, when Placements with Family and Friends Carers Procedure must be followed.

2. Key Objectives of Kinship Care

• To maintain a child or children in their own family or family network, as a better alternative to Looking After the child or children, so long as this is consistent with the local authority’s duty to ensure that the child’s safety and welfare are not prejudiced.

• To minimise the local authority’s role in caring for children, in so far as this is consistent with the child’s best interests.
• To provide emotional stability for children who are unable to live with their Parents, in a placement where they can maintain links with family, siblings and friends; and with their racial, cultural and religious heritage.
• To provide support services to those families caring for a child in a way that is most appropriate to their needs and to the child’s needs

3. Possible Advantages of Kinship Care

It enables the child to remain in the family of their birth and maintain links with the birth Parents, siblings, friends and school.

• It promotes a positive self-identity for the child.
• Attachments may already be strong and supportive.
• Separation trauma for the child is reduced.
• It avoids the Looked After status for a child and having to be cared for by strangers.
• It enables the promotion or maintenance of links with the child’s racial, cultural and religious heritage.

4. Possible Disadvantages of Kinship Care

• Carers are often older than traditional foster Carers and may have more health problems.
• Carers tend to have less of their own material resources and may suffer financial hardship.
• Carers may under-report difficult behaviour presented by the child and/or be reluctant to request help. 
• The contact between professionals and Carers is often less frequent, issues of child protection potentially more difficult to detect therefore and, given the different relationship between the Social Worker and the Carer, more difficult to raise.
• Young people of 16 and over will not have access to services provided to those leaving the Looked After service.

5. Status of Children placed with Family Members

A child living with a family member or friend may be living there as a result of a placement arranged to avoid the need for the child to be Looked After and/or where the arrangement relates to a child who is regarded as a Child in Need.

In these circumstances where the carer is not a close relative, the child may come within the definition of a Privately Fostered child, and if so, the Private Fostering Procedure will apply.

Where a child is to be cared for by a friend or family member, and the Lewisham Children and Young People Directorate is involved in setting up or supporting the arrangements, it is important to clarify the status of the placement before the arrangements are put into place. The status will affect the procedures that apply.

In cases where the placement has already been made before the Social Worker becomes involved, the status of the placement should be clarified at the earliest opportunity.  

The issues to be determined are:

• What are the objectives and timescales of the placement?
• If the child is not Looked After when the arrangements are made, are the arrangements made with the Parents’ consent? If so, is the child privately fostered? Or has a decision been made that the child needs to be Looked After and the placement needs to be made as part of the child’s Care Plan? 
• If the child is already Looked After at the time of the placement, is the placement seen as a stepping-stone to achieving the child’s rehabilitation to the Parents? Or is the aim for the proposed Carers to become the permanent Carers? In either case, there should be clarity as to whether the child will continue to be Looked After. This will depend on the individual circumstances of each case but should be considered as part of the Permanence Plan for the child.

N.B. Where the child is Looked After and the placement is part of the child’s Care Plan, the timescales will be crucial  and the assessment of the carer must be initiated immediately.  Regulations 24 and 25 of the 2010 Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010 set out arrangements for the temporary approval of a connected person as a foster carer to allow an immediate placement. Where the placement lasts more than 16 weeks, there is a requirement that the carer be approved as a foster carer for the local authority.  See Placements with Family and Friends Carers Procedures.

6. Planning Kinship Care Placements

In order to make a determination about the suitability of a placement with family or friends when making plans for children, the following considerations may apply:

1. What are the child’s needs which require that arrangements for alternative care are necessary?
2. Can it be said that the parents have agreed to the arrangement to place the child albeit with the support and assistance of the local authority?  Have they the capacity to make such an agreement?
3. Has Parental consent been given specifically to avoid the need for the child to be or remain Looked After?
4. Is it in the child’s best interests to be placed with a friend or family member to prevent the need for the child to become or remain Looked After?
5. If so, does the placement come within the definition of a Private Fostering arrangement? 
   
   For the procedures in relation to Private Fostering, see Private Fostering Procedure
6. Is it necessary to meet the child’s needs within the placement that the support for the placement is provided through a Child Plan? 
7. Can the local authority provide sufficient support through the Child Plan?  (The proposed Carer’s needs for financial support should not be the determining factor as to whether the child becomes Looked After)
   
   see Section 10, Financial support for Kinship Carers below.
8. What are the risks to the child, if any, through the arrangements being made as part of a Child Plan rather than as a placement under a Care Plan?
9. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the relationship between the proposed Carer and the Parents?  Do any of the weaknesses expose the child to risks, which may be addressed by the legal status of the placement?
10. Should there be a Court Order to provide security to the placement?  If so, is the Carer able and willing to acquire Parental responsibility or would it more appropriate to meet the child’s needs for the local authority to acquire or retain Parental responsibility?
11. Is it an appropriate placement for the child if the proposed Carers are not able and willing to acquire Parental responsibility for the child?  This will be particularly relevant where the placement is intended as part of a Permanence Plan.
12. Are the proposed Carers already approved as foster Carers for the local authority?  If not, is anything known about them which is likely to be a bar to such approval?

N.B.  The placement of a Looked After child with a friend or family member must follow the Procedure set out in Placements with Family and Friends Carers Procedure.

7. Family Group Conferences

This section should be read in conjunction with Family Group Conferences Procedure.

Family Group Conferences aim to achieve the best outcomes for children through a collaborative approach. They promote the involvement of the wider family in the assessment, planning and decision-making process to achieve a resolution of difficulties for children in need, and may help to identify short-term and/or permanent solutions for children within the family network.

The timing of Family Group Conferences will depend on the circumstances of the case. They can be particularly helpful at a point when a looked after placement is being considered for a child or shortly after a looked after placement has been made (including during the course of Care Proceedings) to explore options of family support for the child and Parents.

They may also be useful to identify possible permanent solutions for a looked after child at the point where rehabilitation for the child has been ruled out as an option or where Parallel Planning is taking place.

8. Assessment of Kinship Carers

Placements of children with Kinship Carers are often made where Carers have responded to pressing circumstances and have had no prior preparation. These factors often distinguish Kinship care from traditional foster care and should be acknowledged when carrying out assessments.

The assessment may be seen by Kinship Carers as threatening and intrusive and needs to be sensitive to the Carer’s particular circumstances.

Eligibility for services to support the placement should be based on the needs of the child and the Carers, not the child’s legal status.  

Kinship Carers often see help as interference and/or assume that they should be able to manage on their own and/or worry that asking for help may be misinterpreted as an indication that they cannot cope. The availability of services needs to be explained to the Carers during the assessment process.

In addition the availability of financial support and the nature of such support should be made clear to Kinship Carers from the outset. The best possible information ensures that families are aware of what the options are.

9. Checks before Placement

It is good practice to undertake Criminal Records Bureau and other standard checks in respect of the proposed carers. 

Where Private Fostering arrangements have been made, the procedures set out in Private Fostering Procedure must be followed by the child’s Social Worker. 

For all arrangements, the following is a full list of matters to be considered, details of which must be recorded.

• Age
• Health
• Personality
• Marital status and particulars of any previous marriages
• Criminal convictions and results of any applications to adopt, child mind, or foster
• Past and present employment, leisure activities and interests.
• Previous experience of looking after children, and capacity to care for this child.
• Details of children of the household, whether living there or not
• Religious, cultural, racial and linguistic factors.
• Details of living standards and accommodation of the household.

All arrangements to live with friends or family should be planned in advance as far as possible.  However, emergency arrangements are sometimes inevitable, but these can only take place if:

• The Carers have been interviewed
• The accommodation has been inspected
• Information has been obtained about other persons living in the household

Family support services (e.g. social work support, other agency support) should also be used to help and stabilise children who are living with their extended family or with friends.

For Financial Support to placements, see Section 10, Financial Support for Placements with friends or Family Members.

For checks required before placements of Looked After Children with friends and family members, see Placements with Family and Friends Carers Procedures.

10. Financial Support for Placements with Friends or Family Members

Financial support can be given to a placement with a friend or family member whether or not the child is Looked After. However, the status of the placement will determine the nature and amount of the financial support and who can authorise its payment.

There are three categories of payment, which may be considered:

1. Subsistence crisis (one-off) payments

These should be used to overcome a crisis, following the best assessment that can be achieved in the circumstances. 

2. Setting-up

These are for such items as clothing, furniture, or bedding. The Social Worker must be satisfied that the Carers’ financial position justifies the payment and that the care of the child is likely to continue for some time.

3. Weekly living contribution

Where family members or friends care for a child and the child is not Looked After, such payments should be seen as a short-term measure for a set number of weeks while more appropriate permanent arrangements are made. 

11. Friends and Family Members as Permanent Carers

Where a child is placed with a friend or family member, whether or not the child is Looked After, and the placement is intended as a permanent placement, it should be borne in mind that the placement should be secured legally.

There will be a number of options depending on the needs of the particular child, for example, the appropriateness of a Residence Order, Special Guardianship or an Adoption Order should be considered. It will be exceptional for the child’s needs to be served by remaining the subject of a Care Order. 

For further guidance on this, see Permanence Planning Procedure.

Placements with relatives and friends should be considered in all cases as a way of promoting contact between the child and Parents and maintaining family links in a familiar setting.

The fact of the relationship is not sufficient on its own to assess a placement as suitable.

There may be contra-indicators, which negate the advantages of such a placement for example:

1. Where difficult family relationships are likely to rule out the possibility of helpful contact between the child and Parents
2. Where there is evidence to suggest that the child may be at risk if placed with the wider family
3. Where the child’s wishes are not in favour of such a placement.
4. Where the assessment indicates that the Carers will require a level of support that cannot be provided by the local authority within the time-scale needed.

End