Local Kinship Offer

Sometimes children are unable to live with their parent/s for a variety of reasons. Whatever the reason it is likely to be a difficult time for everyone involved, working together with family and friends can often help identify a positive solution for children reducing the amount of disruption experienced by all.

For many Kinship Carers caring for a child full time, even if for a short term/temporary period, will be new and may be daunting, this offer provides you with details of how Warwickshire will support you, providing links to advice and support services to help you navigate the role of a Kinship Carer.

Values, principles and objectives

Kinship Carers will be made aware of the support that they are entitled to, we will actively work with our Kinship Carers to address any barriers that carers face in accessing support.

Warwickshire will work with Kinship Carers to identify their specific needs to enable appropriate support provisions to be put in place.Through our relational practice approach Kinship Carers will be supported to build strong trusted relationships with key professionals and contacts that offer support and guidance.

Statutory obligations

A key principle of the Children Act 1989 is that children are best brought up within their families and, for the purposes of the Act, the term ‘family’ could include relatives, friends and other significant people in the child’s life. The child’s welfare is paramount along with the child’s family being involved in the decision making and the planning for their future.

The children’s legal framework emphasises the need to explore the child’s family and friends’ network so children can grow up with familiar people, who are deemed the most realistic caring option, to meet the child’s changing and developing needs into adulthood.Kinship Care is referred to in statute as ‘Connected Persons’. Legislation defines “connected person” as a relative, friend or other person connected with a child and has a pre-existing relationship with the child. Relative is defined as a grandparent, brother, sister, uncle or aunt (including those by marriage or civil partnership) or step-parent.

Where possible, children should be supported to live safely within their family. Where a child cannot remain in the care of their parents, research has consistently found that children placed in kinship care generally do as well, if not better, than children in unrelated foster care, particularly regarding the stability of the placement. It is essential that if a child may not be able to live safely with their parents, practitioners identify potential carers from within the child’s network of family and friends and determine whether they will be able to provide safe care to meet the child’s needs, until they reach adulthood.

Visits and your assessment – what to expect

You will have a number of professionals visiting you, there will be a Kinship Assessing Social Worker who will visit you 6-8 times to complete the assessment. Once you have the child living with you or you have been approved as a Kinship Foster Carer then you will also have a Supervision and Support Social Worker who will support you with fostering tasks. They will visit every 4 weeks and contact you in between to ensure that you are having the support you require. You will also be visited by the Child’s Social Worker. In addition to this you may have a family support worker, depending on your needs. You will also be required to attend All About Me Review meetings (AAMR) and this is chaired by the Child’s Independent Reviewing Officer, their role is to ensure the care plan for the child is carried out. This can feel overwhelming at the beginning; we cannot reduce the number of professionals involved. However, we will work with you to manage everyone’s time effectively.