Introduction ARACY Kinship Care in Australia collaboration

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Introduction ARACY Kinship Care in Australia
collaboration

• ARACY Access Grid Seminar
• 10th June 2008
• Ilan Katz
• Social Policy Research Centre UNSW

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What we will cover

• Ilan Katz
• Introduction to ARACY research collaboration on
  Kinship Care
• Jan Mason
• An examination of issues around the support and
  supervision of kinship carers, with a particular
  focus on NSW
• Amy Holtan
• Feeling of togetherness in kinship foster care
• Ilan Katz
• Summing up

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The Collaboration

• Purpose
• Identify the key gaps in kinship care research in
  Australia
• Share information about research and other
  developments in kinship care
• Develop suggestions for new research
• Link kinship care research agenda to broader OOHC
  research
• Membership
• Researchers, policy makers and practitioners
• Brings together Indigenous Australian,
  non-Indigenous and international perspectives.

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The main issues

• Kinship care is the fastest growing form of OOHC
• In NSW 54 of children are placed in Kinship Care
  (Dec 2006)
• Increases driven by a number of factors
• Change in perceptions of kin as appropriate
  carers
• Lack of traditional foster carers
• Aboriginal placement principle
• But little research in Australia or
  internationally about KC
• Kinship care poses a number of policy and
  practice challenges, as it is both a family
  relationship and a formal part of the OOHC
  system.
• This is particularly true for Indigenous
  Australian families, where kinship care is a
  normal part of child care practice.

NSW Department of Community Services (2007) ,
Annual Statistical Report 2005-06
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Possible research programs

• Processes and outcomes for children in kinship
  care
• Family contact and leaving care
• Family dynamics
• Features of Indigenous and non-Indigenous kinship
  care
• The policy context
• Commonwealth/state interface
• Formal/informal care and their financial
  implications
• Practice issues
• Assessment and support for kinship carers
• The voices of children, kinship carers and birth
  parents

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Social Policy Research Centre

• www.sprc.unsw.edu.au/kinshipcare.htm
• ilan.katz_at_unsw.edu.au

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AN EXAMINATION OF ISSUES AROUND THE SUPPORT
AND SUPERVISION OF KINSHIP CARERS, WITH A
PARTICULAR FOCUS ON NSWARC Linkage UWS-ACWA.
Commenced 2005 Jan Mason CI - SJSC, UWS Liz
Watson CI - SJSC, UWSAndrew McCallum PI - CEO,
ACWALeonie Gibbons, PhD student. 2005 - End 2007
Ainslie Yardley, Researcher. Commenced 2008
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OBJECTIVES OF PROJECT

• General aim to contribute to the development of
  policies on kinship care which will benefit
  children and their carers in NSW and more
  generally.
• Specific aims
• To examine the issues, assumptions and values,
  relevant to policymaking about supervision and
  support of kinship carers.
• To compare formal kinship carers, informal
  kinship carers and foster carers in NSW, in terms
  of background, demographic characteristics, and
  experiences of caring for children, particularly
  in relation to support and supervision.

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From, Gibbons, L. Watson, E and Mason, J. Kinship
Care as a Challenge to Child Welfare Constructs.
Paper to be submitted for publication.
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From, Gibbons, L. Watson, E and Mason, J. Kinship
Care as a Challenge to Child Welfare Constructs.
Paper to be submitted for publication.
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2 Value Positions influence kinship concepts

• 'Kinship defenders' position
• 'Society as parents' position
• derived from Lorraine Fox Harding, In Morgan, S
  and Righton, P. Child Care Concerns and
  Conflicts (1989)

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'Kinship defenders' position ?Support

• Characterised by
• 'unique value' of biological family as best place
  for children
• families targeted by child welfare frequently
  socio-economically disadvantaged, requiring
  supports to strengthen

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'Society as parents' position

• Characterised by
• emphasis on 'good' care
• advocating that mistreated children should be
  placed with 'good substitute carers' -
  strangers
• mistreating families labelled 'dysfunctional'
• severing of biological bonds through promoting
  certainty and permanency for children

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CARERS POLICY
AGED CARE
POLICY
SUPERVISION
RISK ACCOUNTABILITY
SUPPORT
CHILD PROTECTION POLICY
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Feeling of togetherness in kinship foster care
Associate Professor Amy Holtan, Center for Child
and Adolescent Mental Health, University of
Tromsø, Norway 
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(No Transcript)
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Aims

• Develop knowledge on the complexity of relations
  in kinship foster care
• Explore the feeling of togetherness/an emotional
  bond/a permanent relationship ( feeling of being
  family)
• Explore the meaning of family and parenting from
  the perspectives of the child, the foster
  parents, and the biological parents, in order to
  improve child welfare practices.

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Theoretical starting point

• The foster home arrangement is a measure for a
  small proportion of the population.
• Foster families lack traditions, language, and
  models for how to understand themselves and what
  they should mean to each other.
• Competing notions
• Work? Kinship obligations? Family?
• With foster home contract follows renegotiation
  of relations

University of Tromsø
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Methodology 2000- 2010

• Family understood as a social construction
  determined the choice of method. The family in
  everyday life is created through discourses and
  negotiations, where the child also plays a part.
• Qualitative data
• Interview of children aged 8-12 in 2000 (17),
  foster parents (23) and birth parents (14).
• Family list/family mapping
• Number of placements 31 (kin 25, non kin 6)
• Quantitative data
• Survey, CBCL foster careers N214 (kin 124,
  non kin 90)

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When you think of your family, who do you
think about?
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Understanding of the assignment by parents and
foster parents
Understanding of the assignment and
solidarity of parents and foster
parents
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Extended family

• Characteristics
• The child has strong sense of belonging to the
  foster home as well as relating to the mother.
• High solidarity between parent and foster
  parents
• Symbolic motherhood respected

I feel that my grandmother and grandfather
really are my mother and father in a way. They
are like always there () I can go to mamma also,
but they are always here. (Girl 12)

• Maternal grandmother/father.
• Absent biological father.
• Infant (toddler) when placed

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Polynuclear family

• Family life organized in nuclear families.
• Solidarity between parent and foster parents
• Symbolic mothering respected
• The child experience ambiguous intimacy

We are two families. (Mothers sister)

• Often aunt/uncle placements
• Direct kin relation between biological parent
  and foster parent or a positive history between
  carer and bio. parent

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Monopolizing family

• Child in strain and loyalty pressure
• Competition and conflict between parents and
  carers.

Her mother pits the kid against us, and when
the kid comes home all hell lets
loose (Uncle-in-law)

• Indirect kin relations between females in-law
  family, or
• History of conflicts between parent and foster
  parent

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Broken family

• Sense of belonging to the foster home
• Biological parenthood given up little
  commitment between child and parent
• Broken kinship network

I sometimes say I am adopted. .I am not
missing Anne. mother (Boy 10 year)

• History of conflicts between parent and foster
  parent
• Infant (toddler) when placed

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Biological family

• Child perspective and power
• Biological parents are understood as the only
  parents.
• Foster parents are understood as substitute.

Im living away. (Boy 12 year)

• Characteristics of the child
• Multiple placements.
• Older when placed.

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Conclusions

• Child welfare measures must be accommodated to
  the needs of the child large variations within
  kinship care
• Child welfare service should in future put
  greater emphasis on building alliances between
  parents and (kinship) foster parents.
• Placements with direct kinship and a history of
  positive relations in favour
• Further research is to find out how child welfare
  workers can intervene within each type of family
  to promote more child-friendly outcomes (as well
  as develop the theory)

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Systematic research review

• Kinship Care for the Safety, Permanency, and
  Well-Being of Children Removed from the Home for
  Maltreatment
• Acknowledgements
• Marc A. Winokur, Social Work Research Center
• Colorado State University, US
• Nordic Campbell Center
• Cochrane Collaboration
• Campbell Collaboration

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Intervention and data

• Children placed in kinship care were compared to
  children placed in foster care on safety,
  permanency, and well-being outcomes
• 4791 abstracts
• 263 meeting initial criteria
• 63 studies included in the review

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Conclusion systematic review

• In regard to behavior problems, reentry, adaptive
  behaviors, well-being, mental health problems,
  placement stability, and guardianship children in
  kinship care seems to fair better than do
  children in foster care.
• Children placed with kin are less likely to
  achieve adoption and utilize mental health
  services while being more likely to still be in
  placement than are children in foster care.
• ! Methodological weaknesses of studies