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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Grandmothers Raising Grandchildren with Disabilities: Sources of Support and Family Quality of Life

Karen E. Kresak, Peggy A. Gallagher, and Susan J. Kelley , 11 Jul 2014

This study focuses on examining the mediating effects of social support on familial well-being or quality of life in order to help professionals identify and enhance sources of support for all grandparent caregivers.

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Key Research on Orphanages and Family Care: An Annotated Bibliography

Faith to Action Initiative, 01 Jul 2014

This resource is provided as a working bibliography of key research and evidence-based policy papers on the care of orphans and other vulnerable children separated from parental care.

Children, Orphanages, and Families: a Summary of Research to Help Guide Faith-based Action

Kelley Bunkers, Amanda Cox, Sarah Gesiriech, and Kerry Olson, Faith to Action Initiative, 12 Jun 2014

This Summary of Research provides a concise overview of a range of studies and findings that can inform approaches to caring for children who, through orphanhood, abandonment, or other causes, have been separated from parental care.

Niños, Orfanatos y Familias

Kelley Bunkers, Amanda Cox, Sarah Gesiriech, and Kerry Olson, Faith to Action Initiative, 12 Jun 2014

El presente resumen de investigaciones se ofrece a iglesias, organizaciones religiosas y personas de fe que buscan información basada en pruebas sobre la mejor manera de cuidar a huérfanos y niños separados del cuidado parental.

Les enfants, les orphelinats et les familles

Kelley Bunkers, Amanda Cox, Sarah Gesiriech, and Kerry Olson, Faith to Action Initiative, 12 Jun 2014

Ce résumé sur les recherches est offert aux églises, aux organisations confessionnelles et aux personnes de foi qui cherchent des informations factuelles sur les meilleures façons de venir en aide aux orphelins et aux enfants privés de la protecti

Education for Orphans in Africa: Predictors Impacting School Attendance

Chanel Nagaishi and Jini L. Roby, 18 Apr 2014

This powerful chart illustrates preliminary research findings using data from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) in 5 African countries (Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, Uganda and Zimbabwe) to better understand how orphan status affects the school attendance of children in Africa and the extent to which living in kinship care can act as a protective factor in this context.

Family Group Conferencing and Kinship Care: Australasian perspectives

Professor Marie Connolly of the University of Melbourne, 01 Apr 2014

This webinar presentation by Professor Marie Connolly of the University of Melbourne introduces the history and background of Family Group Conference (FGC) in New Zealand and Australia and discusses the influence of FGC on the development of formal or statutory kinship care in the region.

Perceived food and labor equity and school attendance among Ugandan children living in kin care

Roby, J., Shaw, S., & High-George, L., 01 Apr 2014

For this study conducted in and near Kampala, Uganda, 518 youth (8 to 18 years old) and their caregivers were interviewed individually, examining the association between relatedness and perceived food and work equity, and school attendance.

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Models of care for orphaned and separated children and upholding children’s rights: cross-sectional evidence from western Kenya

Lonnie Embleton, David Ayuku, Allan Kamanda, et al - BMC International Health and Human Rights, 01 Apr 2014

The authors of this study applied a human rights framework using the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child to understand what extent children’s basic human rights were being upheld in institutional vs. community- or family-based care settings in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya.

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Australia: Whose responsibility is it? Supporting the needs of informal kinship care

Professor Marie Connolly, 28 Mar 2014

In this presentation Professor Connolly reviews recent trends in the use of kinship care in Australia and discusses what this shift means in the context of the ‘residual’ model of child protection used in the country.