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Annex 3
This annex covers the areas, which the Task Group recommends are discussed with the kinship carer during the assessment process.
The Assessment of the care provided by the Kinship Carers to meet the needs of the child in their Plan and an identification of the supports required by the carers
Each kinship care assessment needs to be tailor-made for the family. Workers may wish to use parts of the TFN competency assessment model and some of the BAAF form F formats for assessing foster carers, to work with the family to reach a good decision about their capacity to provide secure and loving care to the specific child as well as identifying areas where they may face difficulties and need support.
From the experiences of workers who have been undertaking work with kinship carers, the areas outlined in this annex have been identified as ones that are likely to be helpful in working with kinship carers. Workers will be selective about which areas are most relevant for the situation of the individual child and the specific kinship carers.
Where the child has already been living with the carers for some time several areas will be less relevant but some kinship carers may find it useful to review with a worker what caring for the child means for them, and the impact on their life and relationships when their commitment is changing to a formal one. The areas where further support should be considered for all kinship carers are discussed in greater detail in Annex 5.
There are a number of general issues that kinship carers will need to face at some time in their caring role. They are similar to the issues that preparation groups for foster carers would discuss at the stage when carers are considering if fostering is right for them and their family.
Topics that may be useful are:
- Working with the local authority
- Supporting the child
- Recognising the needs of children- understanding child development
- Attachment and the impact of poor early attachments
- Changing relationships within a kinship care family.
- Contact- keeping in touch with those who matter to the child
- Coping with changing roles as a carer.
- Coping with transitions/preparing for independence?
Some of these topics may be useful to discuss in family meetings when the contributions of the wider family can be identified and assessed.
History
A fully comprehensive family tree including extended family members should be prepared along with a detailed family history including all family members, contact, previous relationships, strengths and stresses in relationships, potential impact on family relationships in the future if the child continues to live away from their birth parents. Some of these areas will be usefully discussed in family meetings so that there is a common understanding of what changes may occur.
- An eco-map or other representation of the support network for the family can help the discussion.
- Discussion on the issues and changes that may occur in the way that family and friends will support them in the care of the child, especially in the family relationships when one family member becomes the principal carer.
- Consider what can be appropriate support networks for the child/young person to be cared for; are there identified carers for respite?
- The map or the family tree should include the effect of the change of relationship on family dynamics and the changes and impact this will have on the support system including new systems that need to be developed or extended.
Community Links
- Relationships for all family members with their community including strength and stresses.
- Community knowledge of family changes and expectations, including any "cover story" that the family, children and young people may wish to use when they move to live in the kinship care home.
Relationships
- Caring for a family member, integrating the child/young person into the family, the effect on each family member, both those living within and outwith the home including the child/young person.
- Coping with refocusing their lives on the child- managing a changed relationship with the parent of the child.
-Ability to protect the child from his/her birth parents- their son/daughter/niece/nephew
- Shifting from the focus being on their relationship with the birth parents and their problems to considering the impact on the child and protecting the child from the negative aspects of their birth parents' lifestyle, ill-health, or substance misuse.
Loss, Grief and Separation
- Changes in the extended family structure for all parties including carer, child, young people, parents and other family members.
- The impact of the change of relationships, the effects of loss, grief and separation, anger, hostility and failure on all members.
- With increased numbers of families affected by substance misuse, many kinship carers are coping with the loss of a child to a drug lifestyle at the same time as facing the emotional damage the child has suffered.
Working with others
- Working with Children's Hearing and other legal systems.
- Working with agencies including education, health, social work, housing, benefits and advice agencies.
- Being part of the childcare team looking after the child
- How they will deal with losing some autonomy over decisions and planning for the child?
- How will they respond to some core requirements about the way they care for the child- minimum expectations etc?
Safer Caring
- Attitudes to children/young people's sexual development, sexualised behaviour, signs of abuse and ways of working with children and young people who have been physically or sexually abused. Whilst this needs to be explored with all carers, it is a very difficult area for families particularly its impact on family relationships. The emphasis must be on keeping the child safe and ensuring loyalties and safeguards are focused on the child and not the adult family members.
- Coping with children who have been neglected - particularly those emotionally abused/neglected.
- Dealing with children who may never give the carers much reward because of early years trauma.
- Boundary keeping, family rules, ways of communicating to safeguard all children, young people and all family members and keeping children safe in the extended family, during parental contact and in community
- Safety of child if staying overnight with friends
Risk Assessment
- Models for the assessment of risk used in child protection work can usefully be adopted.
- Identification of the key risks to the child and how those are going to be managed.
- Assessment of the positive and negative indicators within the family relating to potential risks to the child.
- Helping families to acknowledge strengths and stresses.
- Is the care offered "good enough"? Will the care offered safeguard and promote the child's well-being? How will they manage the risks that have been identified? What supports will they need to do this?
Substance Misuse
- The effects of abuse of solvents, drugs and alcohol on adults, young people and children.
- The impact on families and community relationships of drug misuse
- Understanding, and helping children and young people to consider the effects of drug misuse, the impact for children and young people of living with substance misusers
- Impact on the child's behaviour, including health, physical, emotional and educational development and their ability to form lasting relationships
- Exploring the kinship carers' attitudes to misuse of substances - what role model will they provide?
Contact
- Understanding the dynamics of contact, the need for this and the impact on the child/young person or family members.
- Managing contact, including supervised access. On occasions, preventing access to their home by their own adult child/relative
- Their capacity to manage potentially contentious contact and altered relationships with their own adult children
Practical issues
Housing
- Is the accommodation big enough for the increased family numbers?
- Any issues over tenancies and who can live in the house and impact on housing benefits if allowances are paid?
Safety
- Safety around the home- fire prevention, storage of harmful substances, any dangerous animals, and monitored safe access to computers.
Finance and benefits
- Thorough exploration of the reality of the costs of caring for children - what impact on their lifestyle, saving for retirement, caring for older relatives, impact on their employment situation?
- An individual assessment of the carer's sources of income, earnings, benefits etc and the likely impact on their income of receiving allowances for a Looked After child.
- Specialist advice from CAB staff should be advised at this stage as the complexities of the benefits system and the effect of Looked After children allowances on entitlements may be major issues for the carer once formal approval of the placement is agreed.
Coping with pressures
- Coping with household tasks, constant pressures and demands from young children or teenagers!
- Energy levels of older carers- who can help to let the children engage in more energetic activities?
- How will they manage the expectations that as kinship carers they may need to make some changes in their behaviour- e.g. protecting child from passive smoking, paying attention to healthy eating and sensible alcohol intake? What levels of respite do they feel they will need to enable them to keep fit and manage the children? Who can provide this? What arrangements would they make for periods of illness? Who in the family could care for the children on a short or longer-term basis in this event?
Working as part of a team
- Developing carers' skills in relation to assertiveness, working as part of a childcare team, attending meetings and negotiating skills.
- Openness with the team about difficulties, failures of parents, even if this has negative impact on the child's parents and the relationships between them and the parents.
Development needs
-What do they see as areas that may cause them difficulty?
- What support, knowledge and skills development opportunities would they like?
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