Booklet launched to provide kinship carers in Scotland with vital information
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A new online booklet launched this week to help people across Scotland who care for the child of a relative or friend after 88 percent of kinship carers said they were not given enough information about how to access vital financial and emotional support.
What Now?, produced by the Kinship Care Advice Service for Scotland (KCASS), includes a guide to the kinship assessment system as well as contact details of organisations and support groups who can offer help and advice to carers.
Since 2010 there has been a significant increase across Scotland in the number of children being cared for by family member or friend because they are unable to live with their birth parents, an arrangement known as kinship care.
The latest Scottish Government statistics show there were 4,456 children formally looked after in kinship care in 2019-20 (31 percent of the looked after children population), compared to 3,172 children in 2009-2010 (20 percent of the looked after children population).
KCASS, which is operated by Adoption UK Scotland and Adoption and Fostering Alliance Scotland in collaboration with the Child Poverty Action Group, is urging kinship carers and social workers to access What Now? online or request a hard copy of the booklet, launched to mark the start of this year’s Kinship Care Week.
KCASS project coordinator Susan Hunter said: “Since its inception our KCASS Advisory Group, all of whom are kinship carers, has highlighted the lack of suitable information available to them, particularly at the start of their kinship journey.
"All too often kinship carers get in touch with our helpline asking for assistance; they have taken on the care of children at short notice with no understanding of what this will entail for them and their family.
“Kinship carers describe feeling overwhelmed and very much alone.
"Where they have been provided with information, they have found this to be difficult to comprehend with terms they are not familiar with, leaving them confused and uninformed.”
Children’s Minister Clare Haughey said: “Kinship Care Week provides an opportunity to celebrate and pay tribute to the important role that kinship carers play in providing loving, secure, stable, and nurturing homes for children and young people who can no longer live with their parents.
“All kinship carers deserve to get the support they need, and I welcome publication of the What Now? booklet which will help kinship carers access important information.
"I would like to thank members of the KCASS Advisory Group who ensured the voices of those with care experience were heard when the booklet was developed.”
Director of Adoption UK Scotland Fiona Aitken said: “We’re proud to be facilitating Kinship Care Week as an opportunity for us to raise the profile of the carers who tirelessly provide loving homes for their children.
"The week allows us to provide valuable opportunities for children in kinship families to take part in fun activities, workshops and group sessions for carers and learning and networking events for practitioners, encouraging all Scottish kinship care families, and those who support them, to take part.”
Adoption and Fostering Alliance Scotland director Robin Duncan said: “Kinship Care Week is a great opportunity to increase awareness of kinship care and give recognition to the carers for the remarkable, and often unsung, contribution they make.
"It also gives us the chance to spread the word about the new What Now? booklet so that this can be as widely available as possible helping to improve the availability and consistency of support to people when they take on the care of a child.”
Kinship carers or professionals can order a hard copy of What Now? by contacting KCASS at: advice@kinshipscot.org, or by calling 0808 800 0006.
