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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UNHCR Child Protection Issue Brief: Alternative Brief

UNHCR, 2014

This issue brief from the UNHCR highlights key messages from UNHCR in regards to alternative care, including the importance of making alternative care arrangements based on the best interests of the child and using residential or institutional care only as a very last resort.

Drumming Together for Change: A Child’s Right to Quality Care in Sub-Saharan Africa

SOS Children’s Villages, Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland, University of Malawi, 2014

This report is based on a synthesis of eight assessments of the implementation of the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children (“the Guidelines”) in Benin, Gambia, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

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"Yarankowane” Children Belong to Everyone: Nigeria Report on Kinship Care

Chukwudozie, Oge - Save the Children, 2014

This study was undertaken to build knowledge on alternative care practices, especially informal kinship care, prevalent in the West and Central Africa.

Reflections on Africa’s Indigenous Knowledge of parenting: Indigenous parenting practices of different communities in Africa

Parenting in Africa Network (PAN), 2014

This publication, produced by the Parenting in Africa Network (PAN), highlights the skillful parenting practices of several pastoral communities in Africa.

Alternative Care: An Animated Film

Save the Children, 2014

This animated video, produced by Save the Children, tells the story of Suman, a boy whose mother sends him to a care center as she is having difficulty caring for him.

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What Happens to Siblings in the Care System?

Cathy Ashley and David Roth - Family Rights Group & Kinship Care Alliance , 2014

This report investigates the current experience of siblings in the care system in the UK and whether some placement types are more likely than others to enable siblings to be
raised together.

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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The 'dance' of kinship care in England and Ireland: Navigating a course between regulation and relationships

Emily R. Munro, Robbie Gilligan, 31 Dec 2013

There has been a significant growth in the use of formal kinship care in the UK and Ireland in the last 20 years. The paper charts some of the reasons for the 'organic growth' of kinship care and the multiple dynamics that have shaped this.

Myanmar: Kinship Care Handbook

Jane Calder and Bep Van Sloten, 31 Dec 2013

This Handbook aims to provide guidance for Save the Children staff, NGO partners, Community Child Protection Groups and community volunteers in Myanmar in protecting the welfare of children living with extended family members.