Opportunities and Risks of Kinship Care as an Alternative to Institutional Care – Lessons from Australia

Efforts to close large institutions in many countries have led to a focus on developing foster care programs. Increasingly, kinship care is emerging as another option that research has identified as offering significant benefits for children, including a stronger sense of identity and connection to family and community. That Australian children in out of home care are now almost exclusively in kinship and foster care would appear at first blush to be an enviable situation, and indeed many benefits are apparent. However, both research and practice have identified concerns in many countries, such as variable quality of assessments; kinship care arrangements that receive very limited support; limited access to child mental health services; and poor health and isolation of many dedicated carers, compromising the security and wellbeing of children and placing undue burden on caregivers.
This Roundtable will be presented by an Australian kinship care service provider who has provided support and advocacy to kinship families for 12 years, and a researcher who has specialised in this field since 2009. The presentation will outline identified benefits and issues arising in developing kinship care services. It will be contended that a model of kinship care must have at its core thorough assessment, financial and non-financial supports as family members grapple with poverty, difficult intra-familial relationships, parental mental ill-health and substance misuse. Active discussion of the issues raised will be encouraged.