Grandparents in Scotland caring for their looked after and accommodated grandchildren were brought in from the cold this week with the launch of a new national strategy on fostering and kinship care.
Getting it right for every child in foster and kinship care states that approved kinship carers (those caring for a looked after and accommodated child) will have access to the same level of financial and practical support as foster carers. Until now, the 2000 grandparents and other relatives who are approved carers have been subject to a ‘postcode lottery’ when trying to obtain allowances and other support.
Research shows that children who cannot live with their own parents but are looked after by family members tend to be in more stable placements than those placed with unrelated foster carers. Contact with family members is also more likely to continue and they can more easily maintain a sense of family and cultural identity.
Bryan Ritchie, director of the Fostering Network Scotland, said:
"The launch of this strategy marks a long overdue acknowledgement of the vital role kinship carers play in helping to keep families together and working to achieve the best outcomes for these children.
"However, there are thousands of informal kinship carers out there who have not been through the approval process so will not have access to financial or practical support. Many of them struggle to make ends meet, just as approved kinship carers do. The Scottish Government has allocated money to the Citizen’s Advice Bureau to help ensure they are receiving the state benefits they are entitled to. But they will not have access to the full range of services available to approved carers. This is despite the fact that they are subsidising the state by keeping children out of the care system."
While the strategy puts approved kinship carers on an equal footing with foster carers for the first time, the Fostering Network Scotland is disappointed that the Scottish Government has failed to put a cap on placement limits and to introduce a mandatory allowance for foster carers based on the charity's minimum recommended rates.
For more information on kinship care, also known as family and friends care, visit our Foster Care Resource Centre.
For more information about allowances for foster carers visit our campaigns section or the Foster Care Resource Centre.