Foundations: Kinship Care (Foundations Practice Guide)
Kinship care is any situation where a child is being raised in the care of a friend or family member who is not their birth parent. The arrangement may be temporary or longer term. Local authorities may have different eligibility criteria for support based on the type of kinship care arrangement. Therefore, local authorities should be mindful of the support needs of different types of kinship families, especially those from minoritised ethnic backgrounds as these families are more likely to provide informal care but are less often involved in formal kinship care. It’s also important to make sure services for these families are easy to access and appropriate for their needs.
In this Guide, ‘kinship care’ refers to different types of legal arrangements – including Kinship Foster Care and Special Guardianship Orders – and informal kinship care arrangements, where friends or family members care for a child without a legal order.
