How do kinship (family and friends) foster carers experience their role and working relationships within the children’s workforce? (Sharing our experience, Practitioner-led research 2008-2009; PLR0809/054)

Abstract

This research was undertaken in a London local authority and consisted of semi-structured interviews with five kinship foster carers approved by the local authority. The research used a qualitative approach consisting of one-off, face to face interviews with the aim of finding out how kinship foster carers experience their role and working relationships within the children’s workforce. Kinship foster carers are family and friends who look after children and young people in public care, on behalf of the local authority and within the terms of the Children Act 1989. A semi-structured interview schedule was devised to address the areas of interest, with a series of open questions and prompts. The interviews, with the participant’s permission, were digitally recorded alongside contemporaneous notes being made, and were subsequently written up to produce the dataset for the analysis. The main findings from the research include: • The carers in this study were very positive about the support they received from their supervising social workers, but were critical of the fact that children were often not provided with a consistent social worker. • Some carers in this study were dissatisfied with the level of financial remuneration. • In terms of the working relationship with education and health professionals, all participants reported positive experiences, but while this study sought to see how kinship carers were viewed as part of the children’s workforce, the carers themselves wanted to be viewed as ‘family’ and not professionals. • In relation to the possibility that relative and non-relative kinship carers experienced their role differently, there is no evidence from this brief study to suggest that this may be the case. Both relative and nonrelative carers demonstrate a warmth and commitment to ‘their’ children, reinforcing the importance of kinship care as a preferred placement option for many children