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Securing Stability for Children who Cannot Live with their Parents: children’s & carers’ perspectives on kinship care. Professor Elaine Farmer University of Bristol. RECENT RESEARCH ON OUT OF HOME CARE IN THE UK – group of studies see Davies and Ward (Jessica Kingsley, 2012 ).
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Securing Stability for Children who Cannot Live with their Parents: children’s & carers’ perspectives on kinship care Professor Elaine Farmer University of Bristol
RECENT RESEARCH ON OUT OF HOME CARE IN THE UK – group of studies see Davies and Ward (Jessica Kingsley, 2012)
Challenges to our understanding about outcomes for children in care
Children in kin care were similar to those with non-kin foster carers
The Kinship Carers were more disadvantaged than non-kin foster carers
Your Family, Your Voice: children growing up with relatives or friends University of Bristol in partnership with Buttle UK
Using the 2001 Population Census To provide information on the extent and prevalence of kinship care in the UK, by country and by region. The study had two main aims. Describe the characteristics of carers and children living in kinship care
Which ethnic groups were particularly over-represented in England in kinship care in 2001?
UK Child Poverty and Deprivation (2001) Income poverty Multiple Deprivation In 2001 in the UK 29% of all children experienced multiple deprivations. In 2001 MOST (71%) children in kinship care experienced multiple deprivations. • In 2001 the average risk of a child being poor in the UK was 23%. • For children in kinship care the risk was three times that.
Financial Hardship • [I am] trying to work out how I’m going to get the boiler fixed and if we’re going to make it through the winter with heating…..I’m in debt up to my eyeballs…. I have about two hours sleep a night ‘cos I worry about money. (Maternal aunt caring for 17 year old girl) • Carers prioritized the children’s needs over their own
Children’s Overall Awareness of Financial Hardship • Most children (66%) were not aware of the financial difficulties in the family and only a third said that their carer could not always buy the things they needed such as new clothes or equipment for school.
Carer Burden It’s tough…trying to look after a toddler at 50 odd, 60 life changes beyond all recognition… The biggest thing is losing your freedom, because it’s a form of imprisonment …You lose all sense of yourself … when you’re at the time of life that you should be thinking about yourself…And if you’re by yourself that trebles the situation -you lose everything, like you don’t have a partner - you’re never going to find a partner because you’ve got a baby. You’re not going to make new friends because you’ve got a child... Friends won’t fit in around what time I have free(MGM bringing up 11 year old grandson)
Strain 61% of the carers were rated as suffering significant strain
They felt unsupported and that they lacked recognition I think it’s about time we were valued more … we’re saving them billions of pounds by stepping into the breach and, you know, basically, keeping these kids out of care. We all know how much it costs to keep them in care (MGM with 8 year old grandson). There should be more help out there for grandparents. Foster parents get it, adopting parents get it, it’s just grandparents they don’t get no help. [Once] you’re with [the children] that’s it. (MGM with 9 year old grandson).
Kin carers saw themselves as an underclass of carers There must be thousands of people in the same position as me .. and I think that [it] is down to finance, that successive governments have never ever wanted to acknowledge this underclass of caring that is going on. …, I can't tell you how hard it's been .. I really can't. .. And the eternal phrase ‘But this is a private arrangement’. And because you are grandparents, they know that by and large those children aren't going to starve… (MGM bringing up 14 year old granddaughter).
Contact Coming to terms with parental indifference: I used to cry when [my mum] went because I was like young and I didn’t understand and then I’d be all happy - and then why has she had to go away again?...But now... we saw her in Greentown.. yesterday and well I was like ‘Oh mum hello’ and then she had to go almost straight away and I was like ‘Bye mum’. (12 year old girl with MGM) 22% of the carers thought that the quality of their relationship with the child was affected by the child’s relationship with or feelings about a parent (or other family member)
Children’s Views of Living with Kin Most (97%) of the children thought that living with their carers was good and quite a few described it as “calm”, “quiet” or “don’t get hurt.” Most of the children and young people were happy and relieved to be with their kinship carers.
Unanswered questions about Living with Kin A fifth of the children did not know why they were living with kin/not living with their parents or had other unanswered questions about the past: [I’d like to know] just why [I moved] because I thought my Mum was healthy and I was only little so I didn’t really understand much. (13 year old boy with maternal aunt) The thing is I don't know how it all happened; I just know that my mum couldn't cope. It might have been that, I think, one day my mum just left me here and went off for like a month. My grandma was just like ‘Oh well’. (18 year old girl with MGM)
Stigma Over a third (36%) of the children reported hurtful remarks from others about the fact that they lived with kinship carers and 5 children were bullied: People that I’ve just met have been quite insensitive and..... be like, “It’s a bit weird you don’t live with your parents. Do they hate you?” (17 year old boy with grandparents) Most (60%) told only a few close friends about why they lived with kin, although a nearly a quarter had not told any friends about this, esp. those whose parents had died
Children living with older carers in poor health Children with few people who were ‘very important to them’ (on eco-maps) significantly more often lived with older carers and were more anxious and depressed Some older carers were in poor health, and sometimes had limited mobility or were in pain. They had few people they could count on and some children curtailed their social lives to provide care and company for them Some children were happy to take on a caring role; others saw their lives as boring and envied friends who had more varied, sociable lives or who had ‘everything.. a playstation, X box, Wii and two phones’.
