Background
The paper is based on a PhD thesis in progress: “Children living in kinship care in the North of France”. A study currently ended was funded by ONED – Observatoire National de l’Enfance en Danger (National Observatory of Child Protection) on this topic.
In France, formal kinship care are rarely pronounced (7% of Out-of-home care). They represent a special figure of delegation to relatives or friends. When the judge uses this possibility, he gives the child custody to grandparent (mainly), uncle, aunt, or others relatives. In some cases, he requests an additional educational intervention at home - called AEMO (Aide Educative en Milieu Ouvert) - to establish the new relationship between the child, the kin-carer and the parents. Contrary to stranger foster carers, kin-carers do not receive wages, but they may ask and get an allowance for daily life (food, clothes, etc.).
The field ground is in the North of France. This area is specially concerned by child protection due to his young population and the greatest proportion of children in care in France.
Purpose
In this paper, we will focus on the families’ experience in kinship care.
• How the different members of the family contribute to the decision of kinship care?
• How the family perceives the social interventions?
• How relationships evolve within the family during kinship care?
• How birth parents take part in child bringing-up during kinship care?
• What do kin carers expect from this educational intervention?
Population and methodology :
Our qualitative methodology is inspired by ethnographic approach. The fieldwork began in a non-profit association that provides educative help at home at the judge request (AEMO). With the help of agency managers, we considered all the cases coved. From June 2014 to June 2015, we found 30 cases of educational intervention with formal or informal kinship care. Through the agency of social worker in charge of the case, we informed the family on our research and ask for their agreement to participate. Our work is based on interviews, as well as fieldwork observations at home (kin carers’ home, birth parents’ home).
In each situation, we tried to collect the points of view of social worker and members of family: kin-carers, parents and minors concerned. It was actually difficult to interview all the family members involved due to reasons in links with kinship care: family conflicts, missing parents, uncooperative relationship between social worker and family...
Data
For this communication we would focus on one case to show the main features of the first results and the new questions that come from these meetings. As a first step, we will describe the characteristics of the family and the child in kinship care, the child life course before kinship care and the current situation.
Then, based on this case study, we will propose an analysis of family life in kinship care. In particular, we examine the role of kin-carer before and after the placement. We will study the interactions between kin-carers, birth parents and social worker, the supports provided and how they were perceived by the family.
Key references :
Mosca Sarah (2015). « Enfants confiés à des membres de la famille élargie : délégation ou partenariat entre familles et acteurs de la protection de l’enfance », congrès de l’Association Internationale des Sociologues de Langue Française (AISLF), Agadir.
Tillard B., Mosca S. (2015). Enfants confiés à un proche dans le cadre de la protection de l’enfance. Rapport intermédiaire à l’ONED, 31 juillet 2015, 57 p.
Tillard B. (2014). Disinterest of child protection for kinship care in France, 13th EUSARF Conference, 2-5 September 2014, Copenhagen.
