Kinship foster care

Becoming a kinship foster carer

Kinship foster care is when children’s services place a child in their care with a family member, family friend or someone else closely connected to them. You do not have parental responsibility as a kinship foster carer.

The child is in the care of children’s services, either through:

• a voluntary agreement with their parents
• an interim care order, full care order, or emergency protection order made by a family court

Children’s services make the arrangement

When a child is in the care of children’s services, they decide what placement is the most appropriate to meet the child’s needs.

It will always try to place the child with a relative, friend or another connected person if it is in their best interests. However, that person must be assessed and approved as a foster carer. In an emergency, you may be assessed and approved as a temporary foster carer.

The law requires children’s services to give preference to a placement with a family member or friend who is approved as a foster carer.

You can ask your supervising social worker to give you information about what the process will be.

Fostering assessment

You must pass an assessment by a social worker to become a kinship foster carer. They will ask for practical information and details about your parenting experience, relationships and childhood. All adults in your house will need to pass police checks. It can feel intrusive and can be a difficult process to go through.

Once the social worker completes your assessment, they will give their recommendations to the children’s services foster panel, who will make the final decision.

If possible, the social worker will assess you before the child is placed in your care to make sure you can meet their needs.

If you are approved as a foster carer, you are expected to undertake training which will help you care for the child.

If a child is placed with you in an emergency

Sometimes there is no time to carry out a full fostering assessment before placing the child with you. Children’s services can give you temporary approval as a foster carer for up to 16 weeks to allow time for a full fostering assessment.

Occasionally, temporary approval can be extended by 8 weeks, but no longer. Children’s services may decide it is better to place the child with an approved foster carer, short term, while they assess your suitability.

Your responsibilities

Kinship foster carers do not have parental responsibility. Children’s services are responsible for the care of a looked-after child, even though you are providing this care as a foster carer.

You are caring for the child on behalf of the local council’s children’s services, which means you will need to work closely with social workers follow agreed arrangements. Speak to your social worker about how this might work in your situation and what rights you, the parents and children’s services have.

All foster carers must sign a foster care agreement. This clarifies your role and responsibilities, as well as the support you will be given by the local authority fostering service.

Decision-making

You will need to make basic day-to-day decisions about the child, but would need to consult children’s services over major decisions such as:

• medical treatment (except in an emergency where the hospital will make a decision on the best course of treatment)
• schooling
• foreign travel
• hair cuts

The Children’s Act 1989 says that even if you’re not a child’s parent or legal guardian, you can still make decisions to keep them safe. If you’re looking after a child, you’re allowed to do what makes sense and is reasonable to keep them safe and healthy.

You are expected to work with social workers, teachers, and health workers to provide the best possible care and support to the child. You will have to allow social worker visits, and might be asked to complete a diary or log book for the child.

Agreeing a placement plan

Ideally foster carers can make the same daily decisions that they would make for their own child. You will also be involved with the child and the child’s family to create a placement plan. This will set out which decisions can be made by you or need to be referred to the social worker or parent (called delegated authority).

The placement plan says:

• how you are expected to care for the child
• what other people will do to support your care of the child
• arrangements for education and health
• contact arrangements with the child’s family
• arrangements for the child’s finances, such as pocket money and savings

Longer term arrangements

If there are no plans for the child to return to the care of their parents, children’s services may want you to apply for a legal order, such as a special guardianship order . The legal order would give you parental responsibility which is shared with the parents, and a long-term secure home for the child. The child would no longer be in the care of children’s services and this is likely to mean less financial and practical support from children’s services than if you were a kinship foster carer.

You should not feel pushed into anything. Speak to children’s services about what this might mean for you. Before applying for an order, you should always seek legal advice. You should also clarify what support would be made available under any new arrangement and for how long. You can ask for this to be confirmed in writing.

Benefits and financial help

If you are a kinship foster carer, you are entitled to a foster care allowance to help you with the costs of caring for a child.

The amount you get depends on how many children you are fostering, their age, their needs, your experience and where you live. Minimum weekly allowances are set by the government each year and vary depending on the child’s age and location. The minimum allowance is updated every April. Read more about help with the cost of fostering.

Read more about other sources of financial support for kinship foster carers.

Support from fostering services

The social worker supervising you is your main source of information and link to children’s services.

They should make sure that you have all the information you need to provide appropriate care which meets the child’s needs. They should provide advice and guidance about fostering as well as training for foster carers.

In England, fostering services should meet a set of national minimum standards, set by the Department for Education. Standard 30 describes the support which kinship foster carers should be given. If you are kinship foster carer, it can be useful to know what it says and what you can expect from your local fostering service.

Fostering services should also provide support outside of office hours. Ask your supervising social worker for how to contact out-of-hours support in your area.

Support you can get

Here at Kinship, we offer a range of free support for all kinship carers, including  workshops, online advice and information, and support groups.

Contact the Kinship advice team to speak to an adviser or book an appointment.

Find services, information and support in your local area using our Kinship Compass, including information about your local children’s services.

You can also get in touch with the Fostering Network, and kinship foster carers in England can also get in touch with Fosterline for support.