1 in 71 children is looked after by a kinship carer in Scotland

For too long, there has been a postcode lottery in crucial financial and other support for kinship carers – when will this change?

Holyrood urged to improve support for kinship carers

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  • SUPPORT: Tam Baillie says that family members need assistance.

ALISON CAMPSIE

16 Jun 2011

AT least 15,000 children are being raised in Scotland by members of their extended family because their natural parents are unfit to care for them, a major new study has found.

Drug and alcohol abuse, domes- tic violence and an increase in prison populations have led to a growing trend for extended family members to step up to the parenting role, with researchers describing an “invisible population” of carers who receive little or no support from the state.

Around one in 71 children in Scotland are looked after by “kinship carers” with levels peaking in Inverclyde, where almost three in 100 children are no longer looked after by their parents. This is one of the highest rates in the UK, after the inner-city London borough of Newham.

In Glasgow, 2.5% of children are not raised by their mothers or fathers and it is usually the grandparents who take on the parenting role when families fall into crisis.

The Scottish Government was last night urged to improve sup-port for those who take on the challenge of the parenting role and are thought to save the care system millions of pounds a year.

For too long, there has been a postcode lottery in crucial financial and other support for kinship carers

Kinship carers who house a vulnerable child following intervention by social services are entitled to a living allowance, but the amounts vary hugely between regions with some local authorities deducting any state benefit contributions from the grant.

The vast majority of Scots carers who take on a child through an informal family arrangement are entitled to no additional money at all.

Jackie Baillie MSP, Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, said: “Too often kinship carers live not just below the radar, but below the poverty line.

“Kinship carers play a key role in preventing vulnerable young people going into care and I call on the Scottish Government to establish minimum standards for the assessment and support of children in kinship care.

“For too long, there has been a postcode lottery in crucial financial and other support for kinship carers. I urge the Scottish Government to sit down with local authorities and the UK government to resolve this frustrating and unacceptable situation.” 

Up to £12 million has been divert- ed from Holyrood to local authorities to fund the family living arrangements, with between £40 and £90 a week on offer.

Steps have also been taken by the Scottish Government to prevent state benefits being affected when a child enters the home, but decisions on this rest with the Department for Work and Pensions.

Poverty and deprivation were recurring themes in the report, carried out by children’s charity Buttle UK and Bristol University, with kinship families in Scotland twice as likely to live in the poorest areas of the country.

More than half (55%) of the children in Scotland live with their grandparents, with just over a third (37%) living with a sibling. Three quarters (76%) experience two or more forms of deprivation such as living in overcrowded conditions or in a home where no-one was working.

Gerri McAndrew, chief executive of Buttle UK, said: “Kinship carers are an invisible population who have little contact with social services. This report shines a light, for the first time, on this hidden group who play a critical role in raising a generation of children and young people with little assistance, financial or otherwise.”

Thousands more children are thought to receive be living without their natural parents given that the study is based on data from the 2001 census.

Martin Johnston, priority areas secretary of the Church of Scotland, said: “This is seen as an ever-growing issue and I would expect the actual figure will be considerably larger when the 2011 census is taken into account. One of the really worrying things is that although the Scottish Government, the UK Government and the local authorities have all tried to do things to address the issues, not enough has been done collaboratively.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said kinship carers provide a “unique” type of care with their views shaping policy “for some time.” He added that several departments and policies had a handle on the issues.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/holyrood-urged-to-improve-support-for-kinship-carers-1.1107011