Kinship fostering
Kinship fostering. Stepping up to take care of loved ones.
Kinship fostering – also known as family and friends fostering – is when a child or young person is looked after by someone they already know and trust, such as a grandparent, aunt or uncle, older sibling, family friend, teacher or godparent.
Why is Kinship foster care important?
Children are usually placed in kinship care by the local authority because it’s no longer safe for them to live with their birth parents. Rather than asking them to live with unfamiliar foster carers, we try to keep them with people they already have a bond with so they can stay connected to the people and places that matter the most to them.
At Gloucestershire County Council we know that being in Kinship care often leads to better outcomes for the child and reduces the trauma of being separated from their loved ones. This is why we sincerely value those people who step up to be Kinship carers. We assess, train, support, pay and celebrate them in the same way we do our mainstream carers. It’s not always easy being a Kinship carer but it is a powerful and loving act.
The launch of our Kinship Local Offer
At our most recent kinship event 'The Big Kinship Breakfast' we were extremely excited to launch our official Kinship Local Offer.
Updated statutory guidance and forthcoming legislation aimed at improving transparency and support for kinship families required us to publish a Kinship Local Offer to replace the 'Family and Friends Care Policy'. The purpose of the document is to provide clear, accessible information on all support and services available locally to all types of kinship arrangements (Special Guardianship Orders, Child Arrangements Orders, etc.).
When preparing our Local Offer we wanted to ensure that we went above and beyond the legal obligations and ensure that all the support was not only clearly presented but that it was based on the child's needs, not just on the legal status, that there was clear guidance on eligibility, how to access services and decision-making processes.
We are proud of our offer and have other aspirational plans in the pipeline! We will regularly review and update the document and hope it conveys in some small way how very grateful we are to kinship carers for helping us to improve outcomes for children in Gloucestershire.
Please do read the document and share your thoughts with our Kinship team.
“We get great support from the kinship team at GCC... they are only ever a call away.”
Kinship foster carer
Read the GCC Kinship Local Offer