A new online booklet is launched today to help people across Scotland who care for the child of a relative, or friend, after the vast majority (88%) of kinship carers said they were not given enough information about how to access vital financial and emotional support.
What Now? produced by the Kinship Care Advice Service for Scotland (KCASS), includes a guide to the kinship assessment system, as well as contact details of organisations and support groups who can offer help and advice to carers.
Since 2010, there has been a significant increase across Scotland in the number of children being cared for by family member or friend because they are unable to live with their birth parents, an arrangement known as kinship care.
The latest Scottish Government statistics show there were 4,456 children formally looked after in kinship care in 2019-20, (31% of the looked after children population), compared to 3,172 children in 2009-2010 (20% of the looked after children population). **
KCASS, which is operated by Adoption UK Scotland and Adoption and Fostering Alliance Scotland in collaboration with the Child Poverty Action Group, is urging kinship carers and social workers to access What Now? online, or request a hard copy of the booklet, launched to mark the start of this year’s Kinship Care Week.
Susan Hunter, KCASS project coordinator, said: “Since its inception our KCASS Advisory Group, all of whom are kinship carers, has highlighted the lack of suitable information available to them, particularly at the start of their kinship journey.
“All too often kinship carers get in touch with our helpline asking for assistance; they have taken on the care of children at short notice with no understanding of what this will entail for them and their family.
“Kinship carers describe feeling overwhelmed and very much alone. Where they have been provided with information, they have found this to be difficult to comprehend with terms they are not familiar with, leaving them confused and uninformed.”
Children’s Minister Clare Haughey said: “Kinship Care Week provides an opportunity to celebrate and pay tribute to the important role that kinship carers play in providing loving, secure, stable, and nurturing homes for children and young people who can no longer live with their parents.
“All kinship carers deserve to get the support they need, and I welcome publication of the What Now? booklet, which will help kinship carers access important information. I would like to thank members of the KCASS Advisory Group who ensured the voices of those with care experience were heard when the booklet was developed.”
Fiona Aitken, director, Adoption UK Scotland, said: “We’re proud to be facilitating Kinship Care Week as an opportunity for us to raise the profile of the carers who tirelessly provide loving homes for their children.
“The week allows us to provide valuable opportunities for children in kinship families to take part in fun activities, workshops and group sessions for carers and learning and networking events for practitioners, encouraging all Scottish kinship care families, and those who support them, to take part.”
Robin Duncan, Adoption and Fostering Alliance Scotland director, said: “Kinship Care Week is a great opportunity to increase awareness of kinship care and give recognition to the carers for the remarkable, and often unsung, contribution they make. It also gives us the chance to spread the word about the new What Now? booklet so that this can be as widely available as possible helping to improve the availability and consistency of support to people when they take on the care of a child.”
This year’s Kinship Care Week takes place from 14th -18th March and features a range of webinars and discussion groups for carers, social workers, and childcare professionals. A full programme of events can be found at https://kinship.scot/kinship-care-week-2022/
Kinship carers or professionals can order a hard copy of What Now? by contacting KCASS at advice@kinshipscot.org, or by calling 0808 800 0006.
Case Study
Michelle became a kinship carer to her two granddaughters five years ago. She says she and her husband were not given any advice or guidance at the time about kinship care or what was expected of them as carers.
She said: “When I first became a kinship carer I got a call out of the blue asking me to look after my granddaughters for a few weeks whilst social work got things sorted out at home. Five years later they are still with us.
“The day they arrived I heard the words kinship carer, something I had never heard of before and knew nothing about. My husband, daughter and I looked like rabbits caught in headlights with two little children. We were given no help, advice, or guidance as to what to do or what was expected of us, we felt so very alone and angry. We had no contact numbers and did not even receive a phone call. If I had been given this booklet then it would have made things a little easier. Just to know that we were not alone and that help was out there, it would have been an absolute lifeline.
“I suggested developing a booklet like this at the KCASS Advisory Group which I am a part of. I didn’t want anyone else to go through the horrible, sometimes debilitating situation I was left in. This booklet would have helped so very much.
“That is why I am so very passionate and determined that it should be given to all kinship carers when they take on the care of a child, just so they know that they are not alone and have all the information they will need.”