Kinship care/family arrangements (not approved foster care)
This includes private family arrangements in which a close family member who does not hold parental responsibility raises the child, the local authority has had no major role in making the arrangement for the child, and the Family Court has not made an order in respect to the care of the child. It also includes situations where a child under the age of 16 is being provided with accommodation for less than 28 days by an individual in their own home who is not a close relative, and where a 16- or 17-year-old is being provided with accommodation by an individual who is not a close relative in their own home.
In private family arrangements, where the local authority have had no role in making the arrangement, any concerns for the child should be referred through in the usual way. If children’s social care is already working with the family and the parent makes a private family arrangement, the child will be supported under a child in need plan/child protection plan. However, oversight and legal advice will be obtained where children’s services would intervene if the child were removed from the kinship care arrangement by the parent.