Contact: Rosie Smith ext: 7173 email: [email protected]

1 Summary

This report details the progress to January 2006 of the Kinship Care Project in Hampshire, from its inception in November 2002.

1.1 Kinship Care has been developed to offer family care by close relatives for children who cannot live at home with their parent/s. Kinship Care is an informal family arrangement for children which means they are cared for outside the Looked After system, but the child and his/her carers are supported by services from the Local Authority, to enable relatives to offer care.

1.2 Hampshire has taken the lead amongst Local Authorities in the U.K. in developing a policy framework that enables an assessment and support service (including financial support to carers in financial need) to be offered to close relatives caring for children outside the Looked After system.

1.3 The development of Kinship Care directly supports the County Council's corporate aims, in particular its priority to maximise an individual's opportunities (Aim 1 of the Corporate Strategy), to build strong and safe communities (Aim 4) and also supports Children's Services' aims, to protect the vulnerable(Aim 1), to promote personal development (Aim 2), and to achieve best value (Aim 3) .

1.4 The development of Kinship Care also directly supports the 5 aims of the Children Act 2004 Section 10 (2), in that Kinship carers are being supported to provide safe and stable homes for children; they and their support workers are working with health and education services to ensure that the children they care for are healthy and are enjoying, achieving and making a positive contribution and, if carers are in financial need, the Local Authority is paying an allowance to enable the carers to look after the child.

2. Context for the Kinship Care Project

2.1 In 2001, the Department of Health invited Hampshire to take part in research into family & friends care, under the auspices of the Family Rights Group. The research report was published in 2001 and many of the report's recommendations were incorporated into the Department of Health's discussion document on Kinship/Family & Friends Care issued on 1 November 2002.

2.2 Research findings indicated that relative placements produce good outcomes for children: these placements are more stable, keep children safe, are culturally appropriate and promote positive identity. They are the placements children say they would chose and where they feel loved.

These findings are supported by our experience in Hampshire of Kinship Care during the progress of the project (see section 5. re: outcomes for children in Kinship Care in Hampshire).

2.3 The research also found that relative care is less well resourced and supported by Local Authorities than other types of care for children: relative carers tend to be poorer, have more health problems and fewer material resources than other carers.

2.4 The research report recommended that relative care should be seen as a distinct service type of care and that relative carers be seen as a discrete group.

2.5 Following the Hampshire research an Implementation group for Kinship/Family & Friends project was established in the County in 2002, to take forward the report's findings and to develop services for children and Kinship Carers.

3. The objectives of the Kinship Care initiative in Hampshire are:-

3.1 a) To set up assessment and support systems (including assessment for financial support) to enable close relatives to offer long-term/permanent care to children whose parents are unable to care for them at home.

b) To ensure that these children do not enter the Looked After system (unless their wellbeing demands it) and also , where appropriate, to bring out of the care system those children currently living with close relatives and to enable those relatives to become Kinship Carers or take out a Residence Order or a Special Guardianship Order.

c) By means of providing support services to these relatives, to increase the opportunities for children who cannot live at home to remain cared for within their extended families and within their own communities, rather than to become Looked After and be placed with County foster carers, or be in residential care, or be adopted.

d) By developing these opportunities for children, thereby also to meet the Hampshire PSA target 2002-2005, which was to increase the number of children (as a % of all children in all types of foster care or family or friend care arrangements) who were able to achieve permanence, either through adoption or through placement with Family or Friends. Family or friends placements were to be either where the child was :- (i) placed with family and friends foster carers, or (ii) with Kinship carers, or (iii) subject to a Residence Order with relatives or friends. The target was an increase from 163 children placed in these type of arrangements, or who were adopted, in 2002, to 261 children in 2005.

4. Implementation- Summary

4.1 A Kinship Care Project Manager was appointed in 2002, and 3 part-time Kinship Care Support Workers came into post in 2003. The Kinship Care Support Workers work with carers individually and also run Support Groups across the County. The Kinship Care Support service was evaluated in August 2004 by the Performance Management Unit. The evaluation was very positive; many carers spoke of the fact that, without the services offered by their support workers, they might have had difficulty in continuing to care.

4.2 During the piloting phase of the project ( June 2003 - December 2003, in the Social Services' SW District) and during the subsequent implementation across the county, work was overseen by a County Steering Group and all developments were supported by consultation from a Kinship Carers' Users' Group.

4.3 In 2003, Hampshire, in partnership with the Family Rights Group, developed an Assessment Tool for the assessment of Kinship Carers and for the suitability of the arrangements for children in Kinship Care. This was followed by a programme of training for staff throughout the County about the assessment model and about Kinship Care Policy and processes.

4.4 A national conference- `Kinship Care' was held by Hampshire County Council Social Services Department in May 2003, to launch Hampshire's Kinship Care initiative and to share practice and perspectives with carers and with other Local Authorities.

4.5 There is on-going work to promote the use of Family Group Conferences to link with Kinship Care. Work also continues with partner agencies to improve services for carers and for children in Kinship Care.

4.6 The Kinship Care Project Manager has on-going liaison with the DfES and with other Local Authorities to share best practice and to lobby for the creation of national policy and practice frameworks for Kinship Care as being a discrete type of care for children who need to live away from home.

4.7 In Hampshire there is continuous monitoring regarding the number and the quality of Kinship Care arrangements and the outcomes for children .

5. Outcomes for Children within the Kinship Care Project

5.1 The number of children being cared for in Kinship Care arrangements has steadily increased - from 11 children (and 11 carers) in February 2004 to 54 children (39 Kinship Carers) in December 2005.

5.2 Outcomes for these children are very positive i.e. out of 83 children placed in Kinship Care arrangements between June 2003 and December 2005 - 12 of these children moved on to Residence Order with their carers; 9 of these children returned home to live with their parents; 2 of these children moved to live with other relatives and 54 have remained in Kinship Care. Amongst the cohort of children in Kinship Care, 4 of these children have come out of the care system into Kinship Care and a further 9 children have come out of care into a Residence Order.

5.3 Only 6 children of the 83 children originally placed in Kinship care experienced a breakdown of placement and had to become Looked After and moved to live with County foster carers.

5.4 Kinship Care is therefore proving a very stable arrangement for children. Research bears this out - it has been found that relative carers are exceptionally committed to the children they care for. Research also shows that the children in need who are being cared for by relatives have the same, often complex and challenging, needs as do the children who are in the care system and thus support for their kinship carers is crucial in maintaining their placements.

5.5 The children in Kinship Care arrangements are unable to live with their parent/s and have been assessed as being Children in Need and one can therefore assume that all of these children would have needed to become Looked After and placed with mainstream foster carers, or in residential care, or be adopted, had not relatives been able to offer care and had not the Department given support to these relatives to enable them both to become Kinship Carers and to maintain the care arrangements over time.

5.6 Some of the children's views about being in Kinship Care in Hampshire have been that they prefer not to be in the Looked After system, where they feel different and often experience discrimination. They also say they feel loved and wanted when they are able to live with their extended family.

6. Outcomes for carers - Kinship Care Support Service

6.1 The Kinship Care Support Service (3 part-time workers based in each of the three Children's Services Districts- North, South West and South East) offers support to Kinship Carers and also to carers with a Residence Order for a child, in situations where the child is assessed as being a Child in Need.

6.2 Kinship Carers frequently request support at the beginning of a placement, during the `settling-in' period, but then often say it is sufficient to know there is a support service they can call upon, should the need arise, as the placement progresses.

6.3 The Kinship Care Support Service currently offers one-to-one support to 24 Kinship Carers and to 43 carers with Residence Orders (between them caring for 97 children).

6.4 25 Kinship Carers are regularly attending a number of locally-based Support groups around the County.

7. Outcomes- PSA Target March 2002 - March 2005

7.1 Hampshire's PSA target was to increase the number of children living with permanent families, either by way of adoption, or with a member of their family, or with a friend, as a % of the total number of children placed in some type of foster care, or for adoption, from a baseline of 163 children in 2002, to 261 children by 31 March 2005.

Hampshire has more than achieved this target achieved this target with a total of 356 children in a family or friends type of placement of placement as at 31 March 2005, when the position was:-

172 Looked After children placed with Family & friends Foster carers

34 children in Kinship Care

150 children subject to a Residence Order

As at 31 March 2005 36% of Hampshire's Looked After children who were in some type of foster care were with family & friends foster carers.

In addition 70 children were adopted.

The position for family & friends placements as at 31 January 2006 was:-

180 children with Family & Friends Foster Carers

54 children with Kinship Carers

191 children on Residence Orders

7.2 Although the Kinship Care arrangements sit outside of the Fostering Service Regulations and associated Inspection by the CSCI, the Kinship Care Service has been nevertheless inspected as part of the CSCI annual inspection of Hampshire's fostering services. The Kinship Care Service has been consistently commended by the inspectors.

8. Legal framework for Kinship Care

8.1 The Children Act 1989 Section 23 (b) places a duty on the Local Authority, in circumstances where a child can no longer live at home, to first make arrangements for the child to live with a relative or friend. In addition, the Local Authority must not seek an Order for a child, unless not to do so would compromise the child's safety and well-being.

8.2 Legal advice taken within Hampshire states, that for the purposes of the Kinship Care Policy, children are only able to be placed outside the Looked After system with relatives as defined under the Children Act '89 ( Section 105) - i.e. grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings or step-parents.

In other placements, with distant relatives or friends, the child will need to become Looked After and his/her carers become Family & Friends Foster Carers.

8.3 Current legislation therefore does not allow Kinship care to embrace the broader spectrum of care arrangements for children with more distant relatives or friends and keep these children out of the Looked After system.

8.4 Currently in Hampshire the term Kinship Care describes the situation where a child is placed, outside the Looked After system, with close relatives. The term `Family & Friends Foster Care' is used when a child needs to be Looked After and is placed with family or friends, and/or a child is placed with a more distant relative.

9. Finance for Kinship carers- financial implications

9.1 The average weekly cost of supporting a child in Kinship Care (should his/her carers qualify for an allowance, following a financial assessment), including an element for support worker time, is approximately £110.00

(The average weekly cost for maintaining a child with County foster carers, including an element for Social Worker time, is approximately £250.00.)

9.2 By re-prioritising within current budget allocations a budget has been identified for Kinship Care and payments are made under Section 17 (Children Act 1989).

9.3 Kinship Carers who need financial support to care for a child can apply for a financial assessment. The same process is used, and the same allowance paid, as for Residence Order, Adoption and Special Guardianship Allowances. As at December 2005 , current Kinship Care Allowance costs( paid out of local Section 17 budgets) are approximately £2,900.00 a week to support 32 children. ( the other 22 children in Kinship care do not need financial support, as their Kinship carers have been assessed as not being in financial need).

9.4 In circumstances where a child is brought out of the care system into Kinship Care, the child's carers are paid a Transitional Kinship Care Allowance which is the equivalent of the fostering allowance they have been receiving, minus amounts for Child Benefit ( £15 a week) and Child Tax Credits (£10 a week- if the carer is eligible to claim this). Being in Kinship Care, the child will no longer need to receive (at minimum) 3-monthly social worker visits or have regular reviews and meetings. Thus, in all these respects, the costs of a kinship care arrangement for a child who is no longer a Looked After child, still represents a saving to the Department.

9.5 In Hampshire, therefore, Kinship Care not only provides good outcomes for children, but also represents good value for money for the Local Authority.

However, research shows, and kinship carers tell us, that financial worries, when taking on care of one or more extra children in the family, can be acute.

The Family Rights Group published a paper `Funding Family & Friends Care- the Way Forward' in September 2003, recommending that funding for relative care should "not be a discretionary benefit administered by social services, but a state benefit, either in the form of an unsupported child element to child tax credit, carers' allowance or improved guardians' allowance". Hampshire has supported this proposal, but central government is yet to take action on this.

10. Personnel Implications

The staffing for the project remains the same as at its inception in 2002, i.e. a Project Manager (Commissioning Officer) (18.5. hours) and 3 Kinship Care Support workers (SSA) (all 18.5 hours).

11. Impact Assessment

Race and Equality impact assessment has been considered in the development of this report and no adverse impact has been identified. Indeed, it should be noted that arrangements for children to be cared for within their own extended families positively promotes their cultural, religious, language and racial identity needs.

12. Recommendations

That the Children's Services P.R.C. continue to receive future reports on the progress of Kinship Care.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background documents

The following documents discuss facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and have been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB: the list excludes

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

None