Kinship Care: Current Scottish Dilemmas and Some Proposals for the Future (Getting It Right for Every Child in Kinship and Foster Care Strategy) (Report‪)‬

Introduction Over many years, in Scotland, children have been cared for by their extended families when their birth parents have been unable to provide them with the safe care that they need to grow and develop. As in the rest of the UK, a patchwork of arrangements has emerged for supporting kinship carers and the children for whom they care. Some children come into the formal care system because they have been placed with family or friends by a local authority; some are living with kin having been placed on a supervision requirement by a Children's Hearing; others are there as the result of arrangements made within the family. In some instances, their carers may have a court order giving them parental rights and responsibilities, including the right to have the child living with them. These carers may or may not have approached social work services.