Editorial (Guest Editorial‪)‬

This special issue focuses on children being brought up by members of their extended families or social networks because they cannot live with their birth parents. This is typically known as kinship care or, in England and Wales, family and friends care. Relatives and family friends, of course, have traditionally stepped in to care for children at times of family crisis and this type of living arrangement is found in very diverse societies across the world. In the UK it has also long been a recognised placement for children needing substitute care who come to the attention of welfare agencies, although it has never been the dominant mode, in contrast to some other European countries such as Spain, where, as the article by Palacios and Jimenez notes, 85 per cent of foster care is provided by kin. Indeed, by the 1980s, kin placements in the UK had become very much a minority and poorly regarded placement option.