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Kinship care

Kinship care is also known as:

  • Family and friends care
  • Kinship arrangement
  • Connected carers
  • Special guardians

What kinship care is

When a child cannot live with their parents, living with someone they know well is the next best thing.

A child may live with a relative or other connected person, instead of their parents or step-parents. In this case, the child is considered to be cared for by family and friends.

The definition of kinship care.

Reasons for kinship care

There are a variety of reasons why children may not live with their parents. Examples include:

  • Working arrangements
  • Ill health
  • A parent going to prison
  • A change in family circumstances
  • Educational opportunities for the child. For example, staying with a host family while attending a language school.
  • Concerns about the parents' ability to care appropriately for the child
  • A child who was adopted in another country where the adoption is not legally recognised in the UK

There are different types of kinship care. Types of kinship care on the Kinship website.

Becoming a kinship carer

Kinship carers must undergo the same safety checks as foster carers do before a child can live with them.  

All kinship carers must have training. This is to make sure they have all the skills they need to look after the children in their care.

Kinship carers have a supervising social worker. The supervising social worker will assess kinship carers every year.

The main difference between foster carers and kinship carers:

  1. Kinship carers are someone the child or young person already knows
  2. Kinship carers are not financially supported by the local authority

Kinship care in Norfolk

View our Children's Services kinship offer

Support for kinship carers

Useful online resources to help support kinship carers:

Health and wellbeing 

 

Education

 

Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)

 

Things to do

 

Carers and young carers

Carers:

Young carers:

 

Children and families

 

Legal advice or independent advice about kinship

 

 

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