Kinship care - assessment framework 2024: practice notes for assessor

1. Introduction

This kinship assessment framework is designed to assist social work practitioners to undertake a comprehensive assessment of a kinship carer within Scotland. It is intended to support practitioners to have an accessible assessment tool to assess kinship carers and their needs.

The skill of the assessor is being able to create an environment that enables both the assessor and the individual being assessed to feel confident and safe during the assessment process. The assessor being mindful that they may be asking an individual to look back and reflect as well as look forward and anticipate, and do this in a safe and respectful manner. It is important for the assessor to provide an analysis, evaluation and summary of the suitability of the kinship carer, highlighting their strengths and areas were they may require additional support in their role as kinship carer.

Across Scotland there is a significant increase in the number of kinship carers. Kinship care is now the predominant placement type (approximately 34%) of all looked after and accommodated children living away from their birth parent(s). There is also a significant number of kinship children residing within kinship arrangements who are not looked after as they are subject to a kinship care order (Section 11 Residence Order).

In using this Framework, it is important to acknowledge that kinship carers are not foster carers. The nature of their relationships may be complex due to their pre-existing relationship with the child and their birth parent(s). The majority of kinship carers are not subject to a full assessment of their needs as a kinship carer prior to a child moving to live with them. Feedback from kinship carers has highlighted that they would have found it helpful to have a focused assessment of their needs as a kinship carer as this would have made a difference to their family.

1.1 Acknowledgements

Thank you to all the Kinship practitioners from the following local authority areas across Scotland who came together with the KCASS kinship care consultant and policy officials from the kinship team in Scottish Government who worked together to develop the assessment framework a tool that could be used to assess kinship carers and their needs.

• Aberdeenshire Council
• Edinburgh City Council
• East Lothian Council
• Falkirk Council
• Fife Council
• Glasgow City Council
• South Lanarkshire Council
• Perth and Kinross Council

Also thank you to all the practitioners and kinship carers who gave their time to attend feedback sessions during the development of the Assessment Framework.

Finally, thank you to the kinship practitioners in Edinburgh, Falkirk and Highland council areas who agreed to test the kinship assessment framework. Thanks to them for their time, patience, experience, and feedback in developing and refining the assessment tool.

Kinship Policy Team
Scottish Government

October 2024

1.2 Purpose of this practice note

This note sets out the structure of the assessment framework and how each section might be explored with the individual being assessed. This includes:

• A list of suggested questions that may assist in prompting the assessor to consider.
• The list included in each section is not exclusive and the assessor may have additional questions they wish to ask as part of their assessment of the kinship carer.

This note is not intended to be an quick checklist for undertaking an assessment. It offers a suggested way of collecting information needed to complete the assessment process. Although it is in question form it is intended to help the assessor cover key areas and should be part of a dynamic process. The assessor should always use their professional judgement when making their assessment and analysis of the information provided.