Kinship Initial Assessments
Assessment of kinship carers is undertaken by the child protection practitioner, and this process is different to foster care assessment in that it takes account of distinctive issues:
- the pre existing relationship between the child, family and the carer
- the carer is being assessed to care for a specific child
- the carers are usually identified by the child or their family
- the expectations of carers and standards accepted may be different from those for carers who are unknown to the child.
Objectives of assessment of kinship caregivers:
- to gather relevant information to approve or reject the caregivers
- to identify any risk factors within the household
- to make an informed decision about the potential strengths and weaknesses of the placement
- to identify who the primary carer will be
- to identify any necessary supports to ensure the success of the placement.
Tasks in assessment:
- prior to the interviews occurring, criminal records checks must be done on all adults (18 years and over) living in or staying in the household
- the motivation of the potential carers to care for the particular child must be considered, as well as their attitude to the child’s family; their capacity to work with the department to achieve the case plan goals and their current or previous experiences with the department, if any
- the extent to which the carer can meet the child’s specific needs must be assessed, by considering the family and household situation including the family lifestyle and attitudes
- supports must be identified which are needed to achieve the defined case plan goals.
Kinship care placements may be either planned or emergency. Regardless of the reason for the placement an assessment of the carers must be undertaken. If the placement is an emergency a provisional assessment must be undertaken. A provisional assessment is the first step to establishing that a placement for a child is appropriate for them. It should ascertain that the placement is safe and suitable, and that the kinship carer(s) with support can meet the immediate needs of the child/young person. The information gathered in the preliminary assessment is recorded and approved by the Child Safety Service Centre manager.
Following a provisional approval, a more comprehensive assessment is undertaken. This assessment will involve interviews of the applicants and also include the key members of the carer family and household – all adults and older children.
The child protection practitioner then analyses the information gathered and makes the final assessment. The assessment process is to be completed within a set timeframe. The comprehensive assessment should focus on the kinship carer(s) ability to meet the ongoing needs of the child and to engage in case planning for this child.
The following framework incorporates the main issues which need to be discussed as part of a comprehensive assessment:
Family background
- positive and negative family experiences
- the nature of discipline used in family of origin
- stability or instability of family during carer’s childhood.
- relationships to the child’s family
- stability of the marriage or defacto relationship and relationship with own children
- child rearing practices – attitude to discipline, general approach to child management
- communication skills including ability to resolve conflicts and ability to deal with stress
- discipline – how the carer plans to establish limits and discipline the child.
Out of home care issues
- motivation for applying to care for this specific child
- type of placement being considered such as emergency, respite, long term permanent care
- expectations of the placement – do the potential carers have:
- realistic expectations of the child’s behaviour and ability to relate to them
- realistic expectations of the child’s potential and level of performance, for example, at school or sport
- the understanding of and ability to deal with behavioural problems.
- attitude and ability to work with natural family, frequency and nature of access, concerns about issues in family background (for example, incest, drug abuse)
- capacity to work with the department and cooperate in developing and implementing case plan goals, including permanency goals where these are appropriate
- previous or current experiences with the department and how this may impact on the placement.
Kinship Renewal Assessments
This is an assessment of the kinship carers capacity to continue to meet the needs of the children in their home. The assessment domains are a continuation of the initial assessment domains but focus on how the carers have been coping with children in their care, any issues or difficulties identified during the period of care for the children and any identified future intervention being sought by the department and the carer’s capacity to support such goals. The renewal process also considers any concerns identified during the placement in the past approval period.