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INTERIM GUIDANCE
1. The Assessment and Approval of Kinship Carers of Looked After Children
1.1 Introduction
The purpose of this interim guidance is to provide local authorities with advice on an assessment and approval process for kinship carers of Looked After children. At the heart of this assessment is the extent to which a kinship carer can meet the needs of the individual child, as identified in the child's plan, and the support that the carer may need to receive if they are to meet these needs fully. Approval of the carer must rest on not only the support required to be approved but also the ongoing support that may be required to ensure that the child will be brought up in a loving, stable and, if relevant, permanent home.
Some of the key issues that the Task Group discussed in the course of developing this guidance are contained in Annex A. This annex links the guidance with the GIRFEC approach to the assessment of a child's needs.
This guidance is interim in recognition of a number of developments that are underway which will have an impact on the approach required for the placement of Looked After children with kinship carers. These are: the revised Looked After Children Regulations to be issued for consultation in the autumn of 2008; a major training and information programme to be launched later in 2008 on the implementation of the Adoption and Children Act (Scotland) 2007; further development of information on benefit entitlement for kinship carers is underway and the impact of the kinship care allowance paid by local authorities on benefit entitlements also needs to be assessed.
Nevertheless, the task group believes that the principles on which this assessment and approval process is based will remain consistent and, indeed, they have been built into the forthcoming consultation on the Looked After Children regulations.
The interim guidance sets out a process for both existing kinship care arrangements and those which are planned or might arise from the time of publication of this document. The Task Group has prepared a summary of the assessment and approval process for ease of reference to the different stages. ( Annex B)
2. Existing Kinship Care Arrangements where the child is already Looked After
2.1 It is recommended that all existing kinship care arrangements for Looked After children should be reviewed to ensure that the Local authority's records about the child and the carers are up to date and any issues identified are noted for action. A disclosure check for all adult members of the household should already have been completed and if there are any concerns about the health of the carers then medical checks will be helpful in identifying any further supports the family may require to assist them in the care of the child.
If this review proves satisfactory, the following next steps are recommended:
2.2 Using Annexes 2-5, the local authority should work with the kinship carer to discuss and update the support needs of the child and also those of the carer. It is likely that many existing kinship carers of Looked After children have never asked for or received support, so a comprehensive discussion including the range of issues set out in these Annexes is likely to be required.
2.3 For a child who is Looked After in terms of S25 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995
If the Looked After child is already cared for by a kinship carer in terms of S25 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, local authorities will have approved the carers as foster carers. They will thus be eligible now for allowances at a rate equivalent to those the local authority pays its foster carers. This will, of course, be dependent on each local authority's implementation plans. Prior to payment of the allowance, a referral should be made to the local Citizens Advice Bureau for an assessment of the current income and benefit entitlement of the kinship carer; of the impact of the kinship care allowance on the household's income and a discussion with the kinship carer to ensure he or she is fully aware of the financial implications of the payment of the allowance. [It should be noted that kinship carers for these Looked After children are not entitled to child benefit if they receive an allowance from the local authority].
2.4 For a child who is Looked After in terms of a S70 Supervision Requirement
For kinship carers who are currently caring for a child who is the subject of a S70 Supervision requirement from a Children's Hearing, the local authority will have reported to the Children's Hearing about the suitability of the kinship carers to provide care for the child. Currently these kinship carers do not require to be approved as foster carers although they are required to make certain commitments about the care of the child. To date, a range of payment methods have been used across Scotland for these children. Again, prior to payment of the agreed kinship care allowance, a referral should be made to the local Citizens Advice Bureau for an assessment of the current income and benefit entitlement of the kinship carer; of the impact of the kinship care allowance on the household's income and a discussion with the kinship carer to ensure he or she is fully aware of the financial implications of the payment of the allowance. [It should be noted that kinship carers for such Looked After children are entitled to child benefit even if they receive an allowance from the local authority].
2.5 Confirmation of the Payment of Allowances to existing kinship carers
For both carers of children subject to S25 or S70, the outcome of the checks, the child's plan and the supports identified as required by the kinship carers should be discussed by the worker for the child and their senior and if there are no barriers identified to the child remaining with the kinship carer, the senior will confirm the existing arrangements and agree the payment details, respecting any decision by the carers not to accept an allowance from the local authority. An agreement should be made with the carer as set out in Annex 2 unless one already exists.
3. Becoming Looked After and Placed with a Kinship Carer
3.1 The following section provides guidance about the assessment and approval of kinship carers for children becoming Looked After. Children may be placed by the local authority in an emergency with a kinship carer. The legal basis may be S25 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 or a Child Protection Order if the child is at risk and the parents do not consent to the child leaving home. Other children may be subject to compulsory measures of care or their care is being considered in Children's Hearings or Court; or a child who is living on an informal basis with a kinship carer is referred to the Reporter.
Until the revised Looked After Children Regulations are in place, some distinctions in the processes to follow for these different categories of Looked After children remain and these are outlined below.
The guidance and process for the assessment and approval of kinship carers of Looked After children have been recommended by the Reference Group to the Scottish Government, for inclusion in the draft Looked After regulations which will be issued shortly for consultation.
To provide an overview of the recommended process for the approval of kinship carers for Looked After children, the charts below outline the stages for developing the child's plan and the assessment and approval of kinship carers.
These have to be considered in parallel.
Charts
1. The Child's Plan based on "My World" Assessment Triangle
2. The Child's Plan and the kinship carer assessment - stages in Assessment
3.4 Immediate Information required
Whenever a child becomes Looked After, the starting-point of any assessment is gathering information about the child and their need for the intervention of the local authority. This information must be gathered and used to start to prepare the child's plan. Children should be seen and if possible, their views gathered at this stage. Parental agreement to the placement will be needed, if available, or if there is opposition and the child is at risk of harm if s/he is not placed away from birth parents, a court order e.g. Child Protection Order will require to be applied for to place the child with kinship carers.
There is a range of emergency clearance tasks to be carried out to allow the placement to go ahead. Initial checks must be made about the carer's household. These tasks are detailed at Annex 1 and will be incorporated into a Schedule as part of the revised Looked After Children Regulations.
3.5 Immediate Agreement with Kinship Carers
As the local authority is placing the child and therefore carries responsibility for the safety and well-being of the child, the local authority must enter into a written agreement with the kinship carers over key issues including: caring for the child safely and appropriately, agreement about contact with other family members and dealing with any health or education issues that need to be addressed immediately. The agreement must include the levels of support the local authority will provide for the kinship carer including financial support, practical help at home, essential clothing and equipment for the child for the initial days of the placement.
Immediate areas for agreement with the kinship carers are detailed in Annex 2,Part 1. The annex also covers areas to be included at a later stage in the agreement after further checks and assessment have been concluded. This agreement will be incorporated into the revised Looked After Children Regulations.
3.6 Authorisation of the placement
An appropriate manager designated by the local authority must agree the emergency/immediate arrangement and authorise any immediate payments and the provision of essential clothing or equipment required. This could be the senior/team leader for the child's worker or a senior worker with responsibilities for kinship care.
3.7 Emergency Clearance Tasks and Agreement
Within 3 working days of the placement, a meeting with the kinship carers should be held so that any issues that need to be addressed quickly can be identified and resolved. The worker involved with placing the child and their senior or the senior worker with kinship care responsibilities should undertake this review and agree any additional support that is required. Wherever possible at this review a worker must be identified to take on the role of lead professional, continuing to gather information for the child's plan and listening to the child's views about their needs and wishes for their care.
The next formal point in the child's care planning will be a Looked After child review six weeks after the placement.
[Terminology about the Looked After child reviews may change with the implementation of the GIRFEC processes but the key requirement, whatever the name, is to review the child's plan and look forward to agree the future needs of the child and carers.]
4. Continuing assessment of the kinship carers
Annex C sets out some of the key principles which should guide the assessment of kinship carers.
4.1 Assessment of Kinship carers
4.1.1 Where the child is Looked After in terms of Section 25
The current legislation requires the approval of the kinship carers as foster carers within 6 weeks of the placement. A worker should be allocated to carry out that assessment. Wherever possible the worker should not be the child's worker so that the carers can feel the focus is on them and not the child. The Task Group recommends that the guidance in Annex 3 should be used in the assessment as well as the standard information required when assessing foster carers. A family meeting during the assessment is recommended to identify possible other supports for the child and carers and to bring to the surface any anxieties that the family may have about the proposed arrangements.
Once the assessment is completed, the kinship carers' assessment will be considered by a Fostering Panel and the recommendation made to the local authority about their acceptance or not. The Fostering Panel should consider how the kinship carers will meet the needs of the child and what supports they will require. A revised agreement should be prepared following approval - see Annex 2, Part 2. If allowances are to start from the date of approval then the carers should be advised to discuss the possible impact of receiving an allowance for the child on their current benefits with CAB.
4.1.2 Where the child is being referred to a Children's Hearing or has been placed on a supervision requirement
These kinship carers are not currently required to be approved as foster carers. For these placements the appropriate manager with kinship care responsibilities should identify a worker who can start discussions with the family as soon as possible after the placement starts. The Task Group considers it is important, whenever possible, to have a worker, who is not the child's worker, working with the kinship carers so that the carers can feel more confident about expressing any concerns about the child and his/her care or their capacity to provide that care and so that they can be given support in their own right. It is recommended that a family meeting should be convened to identify the supports the child and carers may receive from the wider family and to bring to the surface any anxieties the family may have about the arrangements.
4.1.3 While work will be starting to assess the kinship carers as soon as possible after the placement it is not necessary for all of this to be completed within the 6-week period. However an intermediate agreement with the kinship carers about how they will meet the needs of the child which have been identified in the child's plan should be included in the Looked After child review 6 weeks after the placement.
This will focus on whether the kinship carers can continue to meet the needs of the child and with what supports. The intermediate agreement with the kinship carers about the child remaining with the kinship carers must be prepared following this review. This should include the areas identified in Annex 2 Part 2. The senior involved with the review should confirm the continuation of the placement.
4.1.4 The worker should explain to the carers the content of the work they will do together and be transparent about the areas they will discuss. The timescales for the work should also be discussed. The carers need to know that the local authority has statutory responsibilities for the child's care and safety and will therefore need to explore many areas of the carers' lives and family. Carers need to understand that this will help the worker understand what they may need to succeed in caring for the child and that their goal is to assist them to provide good, safe and nurturing care for the child.
Annex 3 sets out the suggested areas for discussion with kinship carers prior to their formal approval as kinship carers. The Task Group recommends that this assessment should be completed within 3 months of the placement.
5. Parallel processes - Looked After Children Reviews
5.1 For children Looked After through S25 or through S70, a Looked After child review must be held within 6 weeks of the child being placed with kinship carers. The information required for the 6-week review of the child should include an assessment of the safety and well-being of the child in the placement. This will be informed by the ways in which the carers are meeting the needs of the child and what extra supports may be required to meet any shortfall.
The legal options for the child's care should also be discussed with the carers - the workers having sought advice from local authority's solicitors where needed. The carers should be advised of the advice service for kinship carers provided by CABs across Scotland which give both legal and financial advice to kinship carers. A report should draw together all this information and provide an analysis of situation.
5.2 In preparation for fuller discussions and construction of the child's plan for discussion at a 6-week review, we recommend convening a family meeting to consider what part the wider family can play in the child's care and to identify what supports they can provide to the kinship carers. A report from the family meeting should be discussed as part of the 6-week review meeting to construct the child's plan.
5.3 There should also be discussions during this period with the child to gain their perspective on the arrangements. Where a different worker from the placing social worker is undertaking the work, it is essential that a robust communications system is in place so that everyone concerned can reach a collective view. The worker should also ensure that they discuss the future plans with the parent(s) of the child so that their wishes and commitment can be debated at the review. The child's parents should be present at the review.
5.4 The final version of the child's plan should be completed as far possible for the 6-week review. A senior worker/ reviewing officer, preferably independent of the line management of the child's worker, should chair this review. The focus of the 6-week review would be the child's plan and how the kinship carers are meeting the needs of the child. The outcome of the checks detailed at Annex 2 should be recorded. The support provided to date to both the child and their carers should be reviewed and the need for ongoing and regular support identified. The views of the child should be fed into this process, together with the views of the child's parents on the current situation, including the contact arrangements. This will be vital to understand so that the child is not caught in a conflict of loyalties.
5.5 The purpose of the review will be to identify whether the child's needs are being met currently in the placement and what supports and services may be needed by the carers to assist them with any problems that might jeopardise the placement continuing. The lead professional for the child, working with the kinship carer's worker will lead, but wider services, for example, housing, health or education are likely to have a role. [This is the basis of an assessment under the GIRFEC arrangements so that an inter-departmental team approach within a local authority is secured]. In some situations the review may identify that the risks in the placement cannot be eliminated by supports and the safety of the child cannot be assured. If so, the local authority will have to consider terminating the placement.
Discussion at the review should therefore confirm the continuation of the placement or agree to start to make arrangements for an alternative placement if the kinship carers are unable to continue with the child's care or the local authority assesses that the care of the child is unsafe. Contact arrangements with the birth parents and wider family should be agreed.
5.6 If the placement is to continue then the agreement, set out at Annex 2, Part 2 should be completed and agreed. This will provide an intermediate agreement with the kinship carers about meeting the needs of the child identified in their plan. A decision should be made wherever possible at this time about the proposals for the child's longer-term legal status.
5.7 Any outstanding areas for assessment to complete the child's plan should be agreed at this review and a timescale set for its completion. The child's plan should be based on a multi-local authority assessment so that the range of services needed by the child can be identified and agreed.
6. The Approval of Kinship Carers of Looked After Children
6.1 Following the 6 week review in situations where the carers have not already been approved as foster carers, work with the kinship carers will continue to assess the carers and their capacity with supports, where necessary, to meet the needs of the child. The areas for exploration should cover those set out in Annex 3. The process should be completed within 3 months of the placement of the child with the kinship carers. It is important that there is a formal approval process for the carer of any Looked After child.
For many children placed with kinship carers, an additional dimension is that the approval process should include some discussion about whether this arrangement could be supported as a permanent placement. The reports from the worker allocated to work with the kinship carers should be available to the carers, workers and other relevant staff involved with the child 10 working days prior to the consideration of the approval of the carers.
6.2 The Task Group recommends that a meeting which could be called a placement confirmation meeting would be the appropriate location for recommendations about the approval of the kinship carer on the basis that they have the skills and capacity to meet the child's needs as identified in the child's plan. Access to the support identified by the kinship carer's worker will be a factor in agreeing approval.
The child's plan, the child's wishes, the carers' capacity to meet the child's needs with appropriate supports will be considered at the placement confirmation meeting and a decision made about the kinship carers and their ability to achieve the goals set out within the child's plan as part of the team working with the child.
6.3 We recommend that a designated manager should convene and chair this meeting and have the local authority to agree the approval of the kinship carers . Where a range of agencies is working with the child and the carers then this group should reflect the different agencies involved. Some local authorities may elect to use their Fostering Panels for this confirmation process and this should not be precluded.
6.4 The suitability of the kinship care placement to meet both the immediate and long-term needs of the child should be confirmed by a manager outwith the line management of workers directly involved with the carers, and the child. This is important so that there is a level of independent scrutiny and also to ensure that the carers have the opportunity to present their views to people who have not been involved in the information gathering.
6.5 In some authorities there may be scope for a dedicated post as senior/ team leader to manage a team of workers for kinship care while in other authorities the volume of work may be low and no dedicated posts will be affordable. This manager could convene the meeting and approve the placement.
6.6 Following confirmation of approval, the original agreement with the carers ( Annex 2) should be reviewed and updated as necessary, including the additional areas of agreement listed in part 2 of Annex 2. The meeting should make recommendations about the supports required by the kinship carers to enable them to meet the needs identified in the child's plan. This confirmation of approval together with the updated agreement between the local authority and the carer will provide the evidence required for a children's hearing when the local authority is considering a recommendation for a supervision requirement and condition of residence under S70.
6.7 Following approval either at a Fostering Panel after 6 weeks or at a placement confirmation meeting within 3 months of the placement, regular visits to the kinship carer and child will be required as for all Looked After children.
6.8 At the time of preparing this guidance, because of the continuing different legal requirements about Looked After children and kinship carers, the group was unable to recommend one process to cover the different legal settings. For the future and with revised Looked After Children Regulations, the Group is clear that the process to approve kinship carers should follow the proposals for children currently subject to S70 requirements. This would allow a longer period for the assessment of the carers and a more focused approach to reflect the different role and tasks a kinship carer has to undertake from those of "stranger" foster carers.
The commitment to review the process for assessment and approval next year allows practitioners and kinship carers to contribute their views of what works and what enables the best possible decisions to be made.
7. Review of the kinship care arrangement
7.1 Once a year, at one of the Looked After reviews of the child, there should be a specific additional part of the review which will consider in detail how the kinship carers are meeting the child's needs against the well-being indicators and the identified child's plan. The needs of the kinship carer for support and practical help in their own right should be included as well as agreeing how the kinship carers will work together on the child's plan with the other key people in the child's life. Any changes to the support for the kinship carers or aspects of the agreement about the way the local authority will work with the family should be recorded in the child's and the carers' files.
8. Planning for a Permanent placement
8.1 The importance of early planning for a more permanent resolution of a child's care is crucial.
Detailed guidance on planning for permanence will be provided following the review of this interim guidance; the publication of the revised draft Looked After Children Regulations; the relevant draft Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 regulations and the forthcoming training, information and guidance planned as part of the implementation of the 2007 Act.
8.2Annex 4 contains details the content of further discussions with existing kinship carers who make a claim for the child on a permanent basis. These are printed in bold.
8.3 Where a member of the child's wider family makes a claim for the child but that person is not caring for the child, they will require to be approved formally as permanent carers for the child. The work with these carers will need to cover all the areas detailed in Annexes 3 & 4.
Local authorities and their partners are encouraged to begin to consider now those children living with kinship carers where an application for a permanence order could provide the most secure legal basis for the continuing care of the child. The areas for discussion as detailed in Annex 4 would be appropriate for consideration with the prospective carers and the worker undertaking the assessment.
8.4 Current kinship carer offering to provide a permanent home to the child
8.4.1 It is recommended that at the Looked After child review, after the child has been in care for 6 months, the needs of the child for permanency are explored and the review considers what further work is necessary to achieve a permanent placement.
8.4.2 If this is a desirable and achievable option, the child's views should be gathered and an assessment of the capacity of the carers to provide care for a child throughout their childhood and beyond should be undertaken. The worker for the kinship carers should begin to explore with the carers any changes that making a permanent commitment to the child may create. This should also identify the continuing needs of the carer for support. The wider family may be able to meet some of these needs and they should be engaged in the plans through family meetings if possible. The proposed legal basis for the permanent placement must be identified at this review. Additional areas that the worker should consider with the carers are set out in bold in Annex 4.
8.5 Once the further assessment is complete a Permanency/Adoption Panel should be convened to consider the placement and to make a recommendation to the local authority decision maker about the permanent placement of the child with these kinship carers. The evidence of the child's progress with the kinship carers over the period they have cared for the child will be the most significant evidence of whether the placement should be made permanent. The placement should be confirmed by a Permanency Panel and the local authority decision maker should be required to approve the placement or ask for more information or work to be done prior to confirmation of the permanent placement.
8.6 Where a Family member offers permanent care for a child who is Looked After by the local authority but currently placed with foster carers or in another type of residential resource
8.6.1 The child's needs for a permanent placement will have been agreed at an Adoption/Permanency Panel. Where a member of the wider family comes forward to offer permanent care to a child who is being Looked After outwith the family, a full assessment of those carers must be undertaken.
8.6.2 As these carers are unlikely to have had the care of the child before, the assessment must be comprehensive. It should follow the format of the assessment recommended in Annex 3 of this interim guidance for longer-term kinship care placements. The assessment also needs to cover the areas set out in Annex 4. The assessment must include fully the views and wishes of the child about the possible placement and explore the relationships that will be created by the placement and any possible tensions within complex family situations that have led to a child being Looked After and accommodated and needing a permanent placement.
8.6.3 Local authorities may wish to draw on their current process for assessing permanent foster carers which will contain many of the elements that will be necessary to explore, but the Task Group recommends that there are additional areas specific to kinship care placements that must be addressed and the use of Annex 4 is recommended.
8.6.4 During the assessment period a family meeting should be convened so that other supports from family members could be explored for the kinship carers making a permanent commitment to the child.
9. Convening a Permanency Panel
9.1 Whatever forum for decision making is agreed by a local authority for permanency decisions involving kinship carers, their role will be to consider how the well-being of the child throughout their childhood and beyond will be achieved and what continuing support the kinship family will need. The Panel should receive full reports from the work with the prospective carers. It will discuss the outcomes of the work with the carers and the potential of that family being able to meet the needs of the child throughout their childhood and beyond. The report for the Permanency Panel should aim to include the information collated from the range of assessments and meetings with an analysis of the child's key needs and the skills, experience and capacity of the kinship carers with appropriate supports to provide permanent care for the child.
9.2 Many agencies may choose to use their Permanency Panel/ Adoption Panel to make recommendations to the local authority decision maker for permanency in kinship care. The potential of a sub-group of the main Permanency Panel or a specially convened Permanency Forum could be considered to undertake discussions that involve placements with kinship carers. Again, the size and organisational arrangements in local authorities will help to determine the shape of that forum. Further discussion of the role of the permanency panel will be provided as part of the revised guidance on kinship care and the guidance for the Adoption and Children (Scotland) 2007 Act.
10. Support for Kinship Carers
10.1 Whatever the legal relationship between the kinship carer and the child and however short-term or permanent the placement may be, it is essential that the support which kinship carers will require if they are to meet fully the needs of the child must be clearly identified and agreed.
10.2 Getting it Right for Every Child in Kinship and Foster Care identified a range of support for both kinship and foster carers and the task group has developed a checklist at Annex 5 to help kinship care workers consider the range of needs which might arise. The task group, as part of the wider work of the reference group, will undertake further discussion about the range of possible supports.
10.3 Financial Issues
10.3.1 Given the complexity of the impact of Kinship Care Allowances on carers' eligibility for Universal Benefits and the development of this work, together with the range of financial support which kinship carers have received to date, it is important to highlight that further work is required between the Government in Scotland and Westminster colleagues. This work is focused on assessing the impact of any allowances paid by local authorities to kinship carers and of discretionary allowances in terms of S50 or S22 payments on universal benefits which the carer may be receiving.
10.3.2 Ministers and local authorities have always made it clear that the UK benefits system is too complex and disadvantages some kinship carers. It is also not sustainable for local authorities to substitute, over the longer-term, universal benefits. Our long-term aim must be to maximise those universal benefits to which kinship carers are entitled and if necessary consider how allowances can be paid to supplement their income for the child to a level equivalent to that paid by the local authority to their foster carers.
10.3.3 Each kinship care situation will be unique, as some carers will be working, some receiving pensions and others a range of benefits related to their employment/disability status. This means that a comprehensive assessment of the financial position of each kinship carer will be required. Within this context, local authorities should work with kinship carers of Looked After children and the specialist service for kinship care advice to be provided by CAS or other local provision, to ensure that the payment of the kinship carer allowance meets the financial needs of the carers and meets the aims described above.
10.3.4 Our goal is to ensure that kinship carers are better off as a result of the proposed allowance and that their income for the child as a result of a child entering their household equals that paid by a local authority to foster carers of a Looked After child. This will require to be explained to the kinship carers so that they can understand the implications and what financial arrangement will maximise their income. If there is any doubt either that a kinship carer might not be better off with the allowance or the carer does not want their benefit entitlement affected, this should be discussed and agreed with the carer. Alternative forms of support which are not financial could be explored, e.g. paid access to counselling or psychological services; free additional learning support, provided as part of the Additional Support for Learning Act, or respite and befriending for the child, which could be supportive and effective.
10.3.5 The Government in Scotland is committed to working with COSLA and ADSW to put in place a robust review arrangement both of the resource implications for authorities in terms of staff time and the financial costs of ensuring that kinship carers of Looked After children do receive allowances that make them better off thus providing the best possible care for the children Looked After by them. As the discussions continue, the Government in Scotland is committed to sharing updates on any significant changes in the position with benefits.
11. Concluding comments
The Assessment and Approval of a kinship care arrangement is only the start of a journey for the child and for the kinship carers. Kinship carers will need consistent support and opportunities to develop new skills which will help them to meet the identified needs of the child as s/he grows up. Appropriate staff resources to support kinship carers are important. Collaboration with other agencies to ensure that the child receives the services s/he needs will also be essential. Social workers for the children need to have the time and skills to listen to the child's views, to plan with the child, their birth parents and carers and to have access to the resources identified as needed in the individual child's plan. They need to also have the time and skills to engage with the wider family in developing the child's plan.
Further discussion is required about the best way of providing social work support in the longer term so that the kinship care family can feel that they are providing as "ordinary" family care for the child as possible. There are many challenges in the years ahead to provide the best possible care to children who are placed with kinship carers. Preventive work through early intervention will be the foundation to support birth families to give their child the best possible care. If care with the birth family cannot be supported to meet the child's needs then a placement with kinship carers should be the first option to be explored. A range of supports need to be available to the wider family and kinship carers, in particular, to meet the needs of the child to grow into a happy, healthy, learning, achieving, confident and responsible individual.
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