What is Kinship Care? And how does it fit within the movement to care for vulnerable children?

The Martin James Foundation is part of a growing movement across the globe intentionally moving away from institutional models of alternative care towards supporting family-based care. We work directly with partners in many nations as they support vulnerable families to stay together and develop safety nets that allow vulnerable children to be placed in families, rather than sent to institutions, more commonly known as orphanages.

One of the most effective solutions available in this work is one that is often overlooked, and even misunderstood: Kinship Care. According to our colleagues at Family for Every Child “Kinship care is when grandparents, aunts, uncles, adult siblings, other relatives or friends of the family care for children instead of their birth parents.”

In practice, kinship care becomes critical when an emergency or crisis means a child cannot remain with their parents temporarily or permanently. This can include poverty, lack of access to healthcare or education, death of a parent, or broader crises like conflict, disaster or displacement. While these situations can cause a vulnerable family to face additional risk, none of them alone justifies separating a child from their family.

Recognising the importance of kinship care is crucial within care reform for several reasons. First, consider the child’s perspective. From the vantage point of a child, imagine what family separation might feel like. Even where safety concerns exist, a child’s entire world is their family. When we can work to keep children with their extended family, this can mitigate many of the harmful effects of family separation. Second, our colleagues at Family for Every Child have found that “1 in 10 children worldwide are living in kinship care. In some countries, it is as high as 1 in 3. This makes it the most common type of care, after parental care.” While this is true, many kinship carers do not receive adequate support from their communities and governments. By prioritising kinship relationships for children through tangible support, more children could avoid being placed into formal alternative care altogether. In this global care reform movement, there is consistent tension between the macro and micro view of protecting vulnerable children and families. From a macro perspective, we must push for policies, national government strategies and timelines that accelerate progress towards family-based care. On the other hand, we must keep the micro view in mind. At the end of these discussions are real children with real needs and concerns.  There are children currently living in institutional care that have not lived with their biological family for many years. Others live in families right on the brink of separation due to crisis or poverty.  In both views, we must prioritise preserving a child’s connection to their family whenever and however possible. Properly supporting kinship carers is a crucial part of this. By emphasising their role in care reform as part of family preservation, we believe we will see more children enabled to stay with their families.