Kinship Care
At North Somerset Council, we’re proud to support our Kinship Carers—family members and friends who step up in a child’s time of need. Their care helps children feel safe, supported and loved, often during difficult times. This page explains what kinship care is, who it’s for, and how we’re here to help.
What is Kinship Care?
Supporting your journey
Kinship care is when a child is cared for by someone they already know and trust—a relative or close family friend—rather than their parents. There are many reasons why a child may need to live with a kinship carer, but sometimes this might be because their parent is too poorly to care for them or social workers feel that they would be safer being cared for by somone else.
Who Can Be a Kinship Carer?
Eligibility
Kinship carers are individuals with an existing relationship to the child. This could be grandparents, aunties and uncles, older siblings, family friends or someone else. The key factor is that the child knows and feels secure with them, allowing them to remain in familiar, loving surroundings in what could be a difficult time.
Read a story from Kim, one of our Kinship Carers, by clicking here.
Types of Kinship Care
Private, Formal and Informal
There are many types of Kinship Care and they can be temporary or long-term arrangements, depending on the situation:
Private Fostering Arrangements
A private fostering arrangement is a where a child under the age of 16, or 18 if they have a disability, is living with a friend or extended family member for more than 28 days.
A child’s parents may have arranged for them to live with a close family member or friend, without the involvement of social workers or the family courts.
Within these situations, the council should be notified, so that we can ensure that these arrangements are suitable and safe for everyone involved.
If you or someone you know is in this situation, please get in touch via the form below.
Formal Kinship Arrangements
Formal kinship care arrangements is when a child is ‘looked after’ by the local authority. If a child is looked after by the local authority, this means that they are responsible for the child's welfare and where they are living.
In this situation, their kinship carer will be assessed and approved to be their official carer.
Sometimes, this is known as Kinship Foster care.
Special Guardianship Orders (SGO)
An SGO is an order made by the family court, assigning the person named on the SGO as the child’s Special Guardian. This means that the Special Guardian will have parental responsibility until the child turns 18. The child or young person will live with them permanently and they will be able to make important decisions with the child about their life.
SGOs aren’t suitable for everyone and there is a criteria that must be met for you to be granted an SGO for a child or young person.
Ultimately, SGO carers differ from kinship and foster carers as Special Guardians have parental responsibility, meaning they have all the rights of a parent and the child cannot be removed from their care without going through court processes. SGO payments can also vary from Kinship and Foster Carers.
Support for Approved Kinship Carers
Benefits & support
At North Somerset Council, we know the true value of Kinship Carers, and it’s incredibly important to us that they are supported in their journey. With this in mind, we offer:
A note from Kinship Social Worker, Kelly
Hello, my name is Kelly and I am one of the Assessing Social Workers on the Kinship team.
I have been assessing kinship carers for a couple of years now and have met some amazing people. Kinship carers come in all forms, some are grandparents, some are aunts and uncles, and some are just family friends. They end up in a situation where they are caring for their loved ones due to wanting to keep them within their extended family.
We know that the best thing for children if they are unable to be cared for by their parents, is to be cared for by a member of their family or a close friend. Being raised within their own cultural background and with the family they know, and love is always our preferred option for our cared for children.
The assessment process is very intrusive, but we are very sensitive and support our kinship carers throughout the process.
Kinship carers in North Somerset are afforded the same experiences as our mainstream carers, they are able to attend training to prepare them for caring for children who have experienced disruption and trauma in their lives.
We want to make sure that any of our cared for children are achieving their potential and we do this through supporting their carers to provide the best support to them.
Do you have a question about Kinship Care?
We’d love to chat. Simply leave your details below, and a member of our team will be in touch.
Benefits of fostering with North Somerset Council Vs. Independent Fostering Agency
Choosing to foster with your local authority comes with many unique advantages that IFAs cannot offer.
See What we offer