Fairy godparents or fake family? Taking a look at non-familial kinship care

Kinship care, or the care of children in their extended family or friends network, is increasingly being used as an alternative to foster care for children in need of care and protection. Within this domain there has been... [ view full abstract ]

Kinship care, or the care of children in their extended family or friends network, is increasingly being used as an alternative to foster care for children in need of care and protection. Within this domain there has been much focus on grandparents as kinship carers, to the extent that it is widely assumed that kinship care and grandparent care are synonymous. However, there is actually little data available to determine the proportions of the various relatives and ‘family friends’ who provide kinship care to children. In particular, care by ‘family friends’ (‘kith care’) constitutes a largely uncharted area. Of concern however are recent studies in Canada and Sweden that each found non familial kinship care to be less stable than familial kinship care. Anecdotal indications that this may also be true in Australia suggest the desirability of exploring non familial kinship care in order to understand the characteristics that may set it apart from familial kinship care. This presentation will describe the results of a research study that has been exploring the nature of non familial kinship care in Victoria via a survey, interviews and focus groups. Findings indicate that such care arrangements are indeed quite different from familial kinship care, and thus there are implications for casework practice if the wellbeing of both children and their caregivers is to be assured. Implications for the development of policy regarding the establishment, support and monitoring of such placements will be discussed.