Aberdeen City Council is committed to keeping children in their families and own communities, where safe to do so. When a child cannot be looked after by their birth parents, they may be cared for by family or friends, broadly speaking this is called kinship care.
There are different types of kinship families and the duties of the Local Authority are determined by how the child came to live in a kinship arrangement and/or their legal status.
Aberdeen City Council adheres to the principles set out in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 and in The Promise in supporting kinship carers and supporting family relationships.
The Kinship Team are an integral part of supporting kinship carers. The team sits within Kinship, Adoption and Fostering Service and work closely with staff across Aberdeen City Council’s Integrated Children’s Services, Corporate Parents and third sector partners.
What is Kinship Care?
A Kinship Carer is the term used to describe a person who looks after a child, when they are not able to live with their parents.
They may be an adult who is either:
- Related to the child (through blood, half blood, marriage, or civil partnership)
- A person who is known to the child and with whom the child has a pre-existing relationship with.
There are lots of reasons why children may live in a kinship family; sometimes this happens on a planned basis, or it may be in response to concerns about the child’s care which means it is not safe for them to live with their parents.
Kinship carers have the same responsibility as if they were the parents. They must provide a safe, stable, and nurturing home environment and meet the child’s individual emotional, social, and educational needs.
Types of Kinship Care
How the child came to be in the kinship arrangements determines they type of placement and the different responsibilities of the local authority.
Informal Kinship Care
Informal kinship also known as a private arrangement is where a child lives with family or friends without any active involvement of the social work service and the child it not considered legally “Looked After”. Many informal care arrangements with relatives are unknown to the local authority. In some situations, the children may have social work involvement under section 22 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 as a “child in need”.
Formal Kinship Care
Formal kinship care is when a child has a legal status as 'Looked After' and were placed by or with involvement of the Local Authority with relatives or people known to them. A Children's Hearing or court order may also place children in formal kinship care.
It is these formal kinship care arrangements that Aberdeen City Council have duties and responsibilities that are set out in legislation and guidance towards the Looked After Child and to the Kinship Carer in their own right.
Family Support
In instances where a birth parent lives with their child in the household or enters a shared care arrangement with kin, this is not deemed a kinship placement. The parent will still have legal responsibility for the child and can access appropriate provisions as a parent.
This applies even when recommended by social work as part of a child or young person’s safety plan.
