Inside Kinship Care
Understanding Family Dynamics and Providing Effective Support
Published on 21. October 2013
Book
Paperback/Softback
264 pages
978-1-84905-346-4 (ISBN)
Description
Kinship care - the care of children by grandparents, other relatives or friends - is a major part of foster care, yet there are distinct issues that arise in care involving family rather than 'stranger' foster carers.
This book takes an in-depth look at what goes on 'inside' kinship care. It explores the dynamics and relationships between family members that are involved in kinship care, including mothers, grandparents, siblings and the wider family. Chapters also discuss issues such as safeguarding, assessment, therapy, encouraging permanence, placement breakdown, support groups, and cultural issues. The final part of the book looks at kinship care from an international perspective, with examples from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and the United States.
Drawing on a range of theoretical perspectives and with contributions from different branches of kinship care, this book provides an invaluable overview of the issues involved and how to provide effective support. It will be essential reading for all those working in the kinship care field, including social workers, therapists, counsellors, psychologists and family lawyers.
This book takes an in-depth look at what goes on 'inside' kinship care. It explores the dynamics and relationships between family members that are involved in kinship care, including mothers, grandparents, siblings and the wider family. Chapters also discuss issues such as safeguarding, assessment, therapy, encouraging permanence, placement breakdown, support groups, and cultural issues. The final part of the book looks at kinship care from an international perspective, with examples from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and the United States.
Drawing on a range of theoretical perspectives and with contributions from different branches of kinship care, this book provides an invaluable overview of the issues involved and how to provide effective support. It will be essential reading for all those working in the kinship care field, including social workers, therapists, counsellors, psychologists and family lawyers.
Reviews / Votes
Pitcher aids the reader's understanding of the subject by providing case studies, practical safeguarding exercises and tool for Social Workers and students... These tools and exercises, whilst being extremely helpful, make the book accessible and highlyreadable... I shall certainly be recommending this text both to colleagues and to social work students to support them to gain an insight into the complex and skilled area of kinship care. -- Social Welfare Portal, The British Library David Pitcher has put together an eclectic collection of newly commissioned social work, social policy and psychological chapters to aid readers' understanding and appreciation of kinship care in its broader sens... It is most welcome in this book that 'ways forward for kinship care' are identified so that readers are not left simply reading about known problems but different solutions and new approaches...The essence of this important positive publication is its varied and coherent range of insights into kinship care, its evidence base, its practice examples, and therapeutic understandings and messages about what living in kinship care is really like for children, their families, as well as the professionals and organisations working with them. -- From the Foreword by Professor Bob Broad, Weeks Centre for Social and Policy Research, London South Bank University, UK I welcome the authorship and production of this authoritative volume on every significant aspect of kinship care... In my view the book should be required background reading for the family judiciary as well as children's lawyers, social workers and others concerned with the provision and implementation of Children's Services... This book is welcome as a comprehensive and highly readable compendium of chapters which together comprise an up to date study of Kinship Care. -- From the Foreword by Sir Mark Potter, former President of the Family Law Division and former Head of Family Justice Kinship care is a crucial permanence option for children who cannot live at home. It warrants equal status with all other permanence options. This comprehensive kinship care manual covers every aspect of an important social issue. The book made me think differently about relationships we sometimes take for granted. The bond that binds extended families together is beautifully illustrated in many of the well-structured and researched chapters. David Pitcher has assembled a valuable range of contributors, with a prominent international dimension, conveying the central role kinship care plays globally in children's lives. -- Anthony Douglas CBE, Chief Executive, Cafcass, UK and Chair, British Association of Adoption and Fostering This book not only fills a gap in the literature, it is a stunning weave of professional expertise and lived experience of kinship care. David Pitcher has harnessed the expertise of a group of international researchers, scholar-practitioners and young people and families with experience of kinship care to create an edited handbook of significant importance to the field. The book is timely. The authors are compassionate, thoughtful and hopeful in their approach - but they do not gloss over the complex dynamics of kinship care. Using a wide lens family systems perspective, they engage head on with the needs of children and families, underpinned by a strengths-based approach, and with clear implications for policy and practice. -- Professor Arlene Vetere, Deputy Programme Director, PsychD Clinical Psychology, University of Surrey, UK This book gives a valuable insight into the benefits and potential challenges in ensuring that this type of care offers the permanence and security that all children deserve and need... The book brings together a range of perspectives from a variety of authors,highlighting the complexity of children being cared for by extended family... There are useful tools included, evidencing that assessment and ongoing work with kinship carers is essential to ensure that kinship placements can offer the safety, security and permanence to children. -- Alison Benjamin, care services team manager, Surrey County Council * Children & Young People Now * This book provides a useful insight into the joys and challenges of kinship placement... The publication is divided into three sections: family perspectives; intervention and support; and international contexts, skilfully linked together by the editor... The need for practical, social and skilled emotional support for families runs throughout this book, making it excellent reading for everyone involved in decision making for children who cannot live with their birth parents. -- Polly Baynes, independent social worker and trainer * Seen and Heard * This book has as its focus an analysis of various perspectives that go o to support the concept of Kinship Care... An interesting complication of various authors and researchers, with informative and thought-provoking content, it is a really easy read that is well worth being present in any social worker's library. -- Carolyn Taylor-Score, CAFCASS Enhances Practitioner * Professional Social Work *
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Illustrations
6 figures
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
386 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84905-346-4 (9781849053464)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
10/2013
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
€37.99
Available for download
Persons
Previously Professor of Children and Families Research, and Director of the Children and Families Research Centre at De Montfort University, Bob Broad is a qualified teacher and social worker. He became a researcher following a lectureship on Social Work Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has undertaken, published and managed research in the fields of foster care, children leaving pubic care, kinship care, grandparenting and participation.
Content
Introduction. David Pitcher. 1. A Young Person's Experience of Kinship Care, Amy O'Donohoe. 2. What Does Family Support Involve for Parents Who Have Intellectual Disabilities? Sadie Young, Independent Chartered Clinical Psychologist. 3. Siblings and Kinship Care. David Pitcher, Children's Guardian and Family Court Adviser, Cafcass, UK, Sarah Meakings, Research Associate, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, UK and Elaine Farmer, Professor of Child and Family Studies, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, UK. 4. The Position of Mothers When a Child is Placed with a Grandmother. Erica Flegg, independent risk assessor and psychotherapist. 5. The Wider Family Context of Kinship Care. Jeanne Ziminski, Systemic Family Psychotherapist, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, Sutton, Surrey, UK. 6. 'It Takes a Village': Placing Grandparents and Extended Family at the Centre of Safeguarding Vulnerable Children. Andrew Turnell, social worker and child protection consultant, Resolutions Consultancy, Australia and Susie Essex, retired Consultant Family Therapist, UK. 7. Undertaking an Expert Assessment for the Court. Anna Gough, Independent Clinical Psychologist. 8. Permanence Planning for Children in Family and Friends Care: Establishing a Secure Base in the Re-ordering of Family Relationships. John Simmonds, Director of Policy, Research and Development, British Association of Adoption and Fostering (BAAF), UK. 9. 'Get them out of here!' An Exploration of Kinship Placement Breakdown. Tom Hawkins, Lecturer in Social Work, University of Plymouth, UK. 10. A Psychoanalytic Approach to Kinship Care. Graham Music, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist, Tavistock Clinic, UK and Geraldine Crehan, Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, Surrey, UK. 11. Support Groups: What they Do and How they Help. Jackie Wyke, Trustee for the Grandparents' Association, UK. 12. What do White Kinship Carers Need to Consider when Caring for Children of Black 'Mixed Race'? Nick Banks, independent Consultant Chartered Clinical Psychologist. 13. Australia and New Zealand: Assessing Parenting Capacity in Kinship Care. Marilyn McHugh, Research Fellow, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Australia and Paula Hayden, Social Work Consultant, Foster and Kinship Care, Sydney, Australia. 14. Kinship Care Among Families Affected by HIV in South Africa. Caroline Kuo, Assistant Professor, Department of Behavioral and Social Science, Brown University, USA, Lucie Cluver, Department of Social Policy and Intervention, Oxford University, UK and Don Operario, School of Public Health, Brown University, USA. 15. The Views of Children in Kinship Care, Their Caregivers and Their Birth Parents: Key Themes from the United States. James P. Gleeson, Associate Professor, Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA. Epilogue. Looking Forward in Kinship Care. David Pitcher. List of Contributors. Index.