Pre-school children in kinship care: Are we doing enough as EPs?

Abstract

Kinship care is a growing alternative to local authority care yet it has been argued that its information base, practice guidance and support structures are in arrears of the introduction of new legislation. This research aims to extend the limited information currently available on kinship care by exploring some of the factors and potential implications that this type of parental surrogacy may have on the development, attachment and education of these children.The context of the study is a pre-school extended day care establishment situated within a large multi-cultural authority. Questionnaire data sampling the views and experiences of 39 participants (educational psychologists, social workers and kinship carers) as well as in-depth case studies of two pre-school children in kinship care were analysed.The results provide evidence that children in kinship care often experience attachment related issues and behavioural difficulties, which can further impact on their cognitive and social development, academic performance and subsequent educational attainment and achievement. However, the authors argue that often these difficulties arise from the experiences the child encountered prior to them requiring kinship care intervention, and not as a result of the kinship care arrangement itself.In recognition that they are not a homogeneous group, all efforts should be made to identify the needs of individual kinship children in education as early as possible with ongoing monitoring. Future research should be carried out in multi-agency contexts to understand further the needs of this potentially vulnerable client group, and intervention programmes to address their needs should be explored.The authors conclude with some recommendations for supporting children receiving kinship care including implications for the role of the educational psychologist.