New research highlights the need for increased support for Scotland’s kinship families
For the first time, a body of data about Scotland’s children and young people with experience of care has been brought together to better understand the picture of kinship care in Scotland.
The information is in a new report – Growing Up in Kinship Care – published today (8 October) by CELCIS, the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection, for SCADR, the Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research.
Being cared for by family or friends is the most common arrangement for children in care in Scotland. This study looked at the data of over 19,000 children and young people who had lived in kinship care over a ten year period. Over that time, the proportion of children and young people needing care and protection who were being cared for by family and friends increased substantially, from around 1 in 6 (16%) of children in care in 2008, to almost 1 in 3 (29%) in 2019. The research found that 40% of children who have been cared for by kinship carers did not experience any other form of alternative care such as foster care or residential child care.
The research team brought together anonymised records for ‘looked after’ children, and linked these to records for the same children across education, Children’s Hearings, child protection, and health visiting datasets. Combining and analysing the data has given a much clearer picture and a greater understanding of the experiences and needs of these children and young people. The researchers found that:
- While many children and young people living in kinship families thrive, kinship carers are often supporting children with complex needs, and it is important that tailored support is in place for the children and their carers
- Despite substantial improvements in the educational outcomes of children who had lived with kinship carers over the years studied, this remains an area where many children and families would benefit from additional support
- There is substantial regional variation in terms of how likely children are to live with kinship families, with higher numbers seen in areas of high deprivation
- There are many children in Scotland living with kinship families who are not ‘looked after’ by their local authority, however there is far less data available on their experiences.
Dr Robert Porter, Principal Investigator for this study at CELCIS said:
“More children being able to live with family and friends in kinship care is in line with both The Promise of the Independent Care Review and current Scottish Government policy and guidance, which sets out the commitment to children and young people being cared for within their own families and communities wherever this is possible.
“This is the first time data from different sources has been linked together to give a clearer picture of kinship care in Scotland. While data alone does not give a full understanding of the experiences and details of the lives and circumstances of children, young people and their carers, it can help us to understand what support might be needed and where investment in this should be provided.”
Morag Treanor, Children's Lives and Outcomes research programme lead, SCADR said:
“Scotland made a promise to care experienced children and young people: that they will grow up loved, safe and respected. To know whether that promise is being kept, we need to know and understand as much as we can about the care journeys children make. Much of what we know so far comes from looking at information on an annual basis. This is the first research project to use the journeys of kinship care, over time, to provide a vital insight into growing up in kinship care. This report provides an excellent summary of essential information to build on, with a need for further work in this area, to help us understand more on how to support and benefit children and young people living in kinship care.”