Kinship Care | Better Care Network

Kinship Care

Kinship care is the full-time care of a child by a relative or another member of the extended family. This type of arrangement is the most common form of out of home care throughout the world and is typically arranged without formal legal proceedings. In many developing countries, it is essentially the only form of alternative family care available on a significant scale.

In the context of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, kinship care is the primary mechanism that has enabled a vast majority of children who have lost both parents to remain in family care in their community.

Kinship care offers many advantages over other forms of care for children not able to live with their parents. It allows family relationships to continue, maintains the child within her culture and community, and avoids the anxieties related to placements with unfamiliar adults.

Kinship care is more successful with immediate family members, rather than distant relatives. Children may be treated differently than the caretaker’s own children, and exploited, abused or denied access to education and health services. Kinship care has also been shown to result in the delayed reunification of a child and parents, either because the family is comfortable with the situation, there are financial disincentives for returning the child, or social services are less active in moving the case forward.

In order to reduce the incidence of such problems, the use of kinship care should be appropriately monitored by the local authority or a protection agency. Children in kinship care have a right to protection and family support services. However, it must be recognized that kinship care has a positive effect on many children's lives. Placing requirements on kinship arrangements that unnecessarily intefere with or interrupt this traditional caretaking practice should be avoided.

Kinship care may be an option for child protection agencies to consider when a child is without adequate family care. The decision to use kinship care will depend on what is in the child’s best interests, and should involve a careful assessment of the child’s opinions, the family’s ability to care for the child, and permanency planning in order to work towards timely family reunification. Financial support is an area for debate since, while it can enable a family to care for a child, it may also encourage relatives to keep a child for monetary gain.

The resources found in this section provide policy guidance and country examples on the use of kinship care.

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Executive Summary: Promoting and Protecting the Rights of Children: A Formative Evaluation of UNICEF’S Child Protection Programme in Cambodia (Khmer Language)

UNICEF Cambodia, 01 Sep 2018

The objective of this evaluation was to provide evidence that can help strengthen performance and accountability with UNICEF’s work with the Royal Government of Cambodia and the myriad other authorities and organizations involved in child protection.

Out-of-home placement in early childhood and psychiatric diagnoses and criminal convictions in young adulthood: a population-based propensity score-matched study

Sylvana MCôté, Massimiliano Orri, Mikko Marttila, Tiina Ristikari - The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 27 Jul 2018

This study aimed to compare the rates of psychiatric diagnoses and criminal convictions in young adulthood (ages 18–25 years) among children who were first placed at ages 2–6 years with those of children who were not placed and who had similar sociodemographic and family characteristics.

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CARE: The development of an intervention for kinship carers with teenage children

Jane EK Hartley, John McAteer, Larry Doi, Ruth Jepson - Qualitative Social Work, 13 Jul 2018

This study addresses the needs of Scottish kinship carers of teenage children who have been identified as being in need of extra support.

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CARE: The development of an intervention for kinship carers with teenage children

Jane EK Hartley, John McAteer, Larry Doi and Ruth Jepson - Qualitative Social Work, 13 Jul 2018

The study addresses the needs of Scottish kinship carers of teenage children who have been identified as being in need of extra support.

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A Four-Nation Comparison of Kinship Care in the UK: The Relationship between Formal Kinship Care and Deprivation

Claire McCartan, Lisa Bunting, Paul Bywaters, Gavin Davidson, Martin Elliott and Jade Hooper - Social Policy and Society, 06 Jul 2018

This study provides UK evidence for the relationship between kinship care and deprivation and examines how the welfare state frames kinship care in policy and practice.

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Tools for Transformation: Building a Compassionate Child Welfare System - Recommendations from Foster Care Alumni

Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI), 01 Jul 2018

CCAI’s Foster Youth Internship Program® is a highly esteemed congressional internship for young adults who spent their formative years in the U.S. foster care system. In this annual policy report, the interns focus on subjects they are personally passionate about due to their experiences and understanding after living in foster care and make personal recommendations for improving the U.S. foster care system.

Children’s relationships with birth parents in childhood and adulthood: A qualitative longitudinal study of kinship care

Jeanette Skoglund, Renee Thørnblad, Amy Holtan - Qualitative Social Work, 27 Jun 2018

The topic of interest in this paper is the relationship between children who live in kinship care and their birth parents – through childhood and adulthood.

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Coaching Parents About Children's Needs and Navigating the Child Protection and Other Systems

Frank Ainsworth and Patricia Hansen - Children Australia, 25 Jun 2018

This article reviews developments in the Australian NSW child protection system which aim to reduce the number of children in state care.

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Children's mental health and its predictors in kinship and non-kinship foster care: A systematic review

Yanfeng Xu, Charlotte Lyn Bright - Children and Youth Services Review, 03 Jun 2018

The purpose of this systematic review is to compare the associations of kinship care and non-kinship care with children's mental health and to examine the factors associated with children's mental health in kinship care and non-kinship foster care.

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ՀԱՅԱՍՏԱՆՈՒՄ ԵՐԵԽԱՆԵՐԻ ԽՆԱՄՔԻ ԵՎ ՊԱՇՏՊԱՆՈՒԹՅԱՆ ՀԱՄԱԿԱՐԳԻ ԲԱՐԵՓՈԽՈՒՄՆԵՐԻ ՄՇՏԱԴԻՏԱՐԿՈՒՄ, ԳՆԱՀԱՏՈՒՄ ԵՎ ՎԵՐՀԱՆՎԱԾ ԽՆԴԻՐՆԵՐԻՆ ԱՐՁԱԳԱՆՔՈՒՄ.

Zulfiya Charyeva, Hasmik Ghukasyan, Armenia country core team - MEASURE Evaluation, USAID, 01 Jun 2018

This report, in Armenian, presents the findings of an assessment workshop aimed at bringing together key stakeholders—decision makers, policy developers, service providers, civil society representatives, and donors—to assess and identify the main care reform areas in which action is needed.