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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Better Care Network Strategic Plan 2014 - 2017

Better Care Network, 28 Feb 2014

In 2013, Better Care Network (BCN) initiated an important process of developing a new Strategic Plan identifying the main strategic focus for its work over the next four years (2014-2017). The plan is based on an analysis of BCN’s achievements to date, the strategic areas in which BCN can have most impact in the future by working with key actors to strengthen the response to children without adequate family care.

Kinship Care in Northern British Columbia

Susan Burke & Glen Schmidt, 27 Feb 2014

An exploratory case study design was used to identify the needs of kinship caregivers in northern British Columbia (BC).

Country Care Review: Yemen

Better Care Network, 31 Jan 2014

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child as part of its examination of the fourth periodic report of Yemen under the Convention on the Rights of the Child at its sixty-fifth Session (13 Jan 2014 - 31 Jan 2014).

Country Care Review: Congo

Better Care Network, 30 Jan 2014

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child as part of its examination of the combined second to fourth periodic report of the Congo under Convention on the Rights of the Child at its sixty-fifth Session (13 Jan 2014 - 31 Jan 2014).

How the Republic of Georgia has Nearly Eliminated the Use of Institutional Care for Children

Aaron Luis Greenberg and Natia Partskhaladze, 30 Jan 2014

The Infant Mental Health Journal has published an important Special Issue on Global Research, Practice, and Policy Issues in the Care of Infants and Young Children at Risk. This article documents how between 2005 and 2013, the Government in the Republic of Georgia closed 32 large, state-run institutions housing children without adequate family care.

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From Institutional Care to Family Support: Development of an Effective Early Intervention Network in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Russian Federation

Dana E. Johnson, Svyatoslav V. Dovbnya, Tatiana U. Morozova, Melinda A. Richards and Julia G. Bogdanova, 22 Jan 2014

Infant Mental Health Journal has published an important Special Issue on Global Research, Practice, and Policy Issues in the Care of Infants and Young Children at Risk. This article documents an initiative to establish a replicable professional model that would direct the child welfare system in the Nizhny Novgorod Region away from institutional care and toward services for young children and their families that reduce the risk of institutionalization.

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Guidelines for Kinship Care, Foster Care, and Supported Independent Living in Liberia

Government of Liberia, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare - USAID, Maestral International, Save the Children, World Learning, 2014

The Guidelines for Kinship Care, Foster Care and Supported Independent Living in Liberia are intended to provide harmonized national guidance for child welfare practitioners in order to improve the quality of family-based alternative care services in Liberia, particularly for children without appropriate care (CWAC).

Understanding Kinship Care of Children in Africa: A Family Environment or an Alternative Care Option?

Usang Maria Assim - Comparative African Legal Studies, 2014

This book explores the legal and human rights dimensions of kinship care, the preferred alternative to parental care in the African context.

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Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: A Review with Implications for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren with Disabilities

Karen M. Kresak, Peggy A. Gallagher , 2014

This review synthesized the literature from 1990 to 2013 regarding the subject of grandparents raising grandchildren, particularly grandchildren with disabilities.

Disadvantage, discrimination, resilience: the lives of kinship families

Agnes Gautier and Sarah Wellard - Grandparents Plus, 2014

This report presents findings from the first survey focussing on the challenges faced by kinship carers in the UK in bringing up children and their experience of discrimination and stigma.