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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Equipping resource parents with the knowledge and attitudes to effectively parent teens: Results from the CORE Teen training program

Alanna Feltner, Angelique Day, Lori Vanderwill, Emma Fontaine, Sue Cohick - Children and Youth Services Review, 14 Dec 2020

The Critical On-going Resource Family Education (CORE) Teen is a comprehensive foster parent training program designed to provide resource parents with the knowledge and skills to support teens in their care. This study examined results from trainings conducted across four states and one tribal nation in the U.S.

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Education Opportunities and Support for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Bagamoyo District Tanzania

Bertha Erasto Losioki - East African Journal of Education Studies, 14 Dec 2020

This study assessed educational opportunities and the support available to orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in Bagamoyo District to determine socioeconomic and psychological factors that limit access to education.

Unrecognized: Kinship care by young aunts, siblings and other young people

Meredith Kiraly, Cathy Humphreys, Margaret Kertesz - Child & Family Social Work, 14 Dec 2020

This article describes results from the second part of an Australian research project that explored the prevalence, experiences and support needs of kinship carers aged 18–30 years through interviews with 41 kinship carers.

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Creating ‘Deep Knowledge’ and Transformative Change: A Critical Social Work Approach to Researching Formal Kinship Care

Juliette Borenstein, Margarita Frederico, Patricia McNamara - The British Journal of Social Work, 03 Dec 2020

The aim of this article is to demonstrate how critically oriented research can deliver useful and actionable knowledge directly to the field and promote transformative change.

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Kinship care in Sub-Saharan Africa: An asset worth supporting

Gillian Mann and Emily Delap - Family for Every Child, 01 Dec 2020

This paper argues that kinship care – the care of children by relatives or friends of the family – represents the greatest resource available for meeting the needs of girls and boys who are orphaned or otherwise live apart from their parents.

International Kinship Care Guide

Cross Border Child Safeguarding Working Group, Children and Families Across Borders, 01 Nov 2020

This guide is the first of its kind which comprehensively addresses the best practice for placing Looked After Children currently in the UK into the care of a family member(s) who lives in another country.

Pediatrician Guidance in Supporting Families of Children Who Are Adopted, Fostered, or in Kinship Care

Veronnie F. Jones, Elaine E. Schulte, Douglas Waite - Pediatrics, 01 Nov 2020

This paper explores how pediatricians can support families who care for children and adolescents who are fostered and adopted while attending to children’s medical needs and helping each child attain their developmental potential.

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Grandparenting styles, childhood food insecurity, and depression among Chinese rural left-behind children: a structural equation model

Fan Yang and Xiaoli Liu - Children and Youth Services Review, 28 Oct 2020

The present study aims to explore the associations between grandparenting styles and childhood depression, as well as the mediating role of childhood food insecurity on the focal associations among Chinese rural left-behind children.

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Towards Culturally Specific Solutions: Evidence from Ghanaian Kinship Caregivers on Child Neglect Intervention

Alhassan Abdullah, Margarita Frederico, Ebenezer Cudjoe, Clifton R. Emery - Child Abuse Review, 17 Oct 2020

Drawing on semi‐structured in‐depth interviews with 31 kinship caregivers, this study sought to explore how the culturally informed traditional kinship care practice in Ghana can be considered an intervention strategy for parental neglect.

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The nature and prevalence of kinship care: Focus on young kinship carers

Meredith Kiraly, David Hoadley, Cathy Humphreys - Child & Family Social Work, 11 Oct 2020

This Australian research project explored the prevalence of kinship care households in Australia, with a particular focus on households headed by young kinship carers.

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