Kinship care: A culturally appropriate practice framework for Aboriginal and Torre Straight Islanders

Author

Bromfield, L. M.,
Richardson, N. R. and
Higgins, D. J.

Speaker

Leah Bromfield

Organisation

National Child Protection Clearinghouse, at the Australian Institute of Family Studies Melbourne

In Australia and internationally, there is a growing number of children in out-of-home care, and children are staying in care longer. Compounding this problem, there are decreasing numbers of foster placements available. The lack of appropriate foster care placements is further complicated in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) communities, as ATSI children are over-represented in out-of-home care. ATSI children comprise 23 per cent of the out-of-home population, whereas Aboriginal people make up only 2.4 per cent of the Australian population. The preference for ATSI child placement is placement with extended family or within their communities. The focus of this paper is to examine the recruitment, retention, assessment and support of Indigenous kinship carers and to discuss practice issues emerging from the research literature.

The international review showed that kinship carers differ from non-relative foster carers in the means and timing of their recruitment and their motivation to care for children. However, the literature reviewed suggested that the differences between kinship care placements and the dominant non-relative foster care model are often not recognised in policy and practice frameworks. One implication of this was the potential for kinship carers to be expected to fit within the non-relative foster care model and for eligibility for financial and other support to be linked to non-relative foster care assessment criteria. Another implication was that kinship care placements were viewed as being outside of the formal out-of-home care system. The implication for children in care was that kinship care placements received less support than non-relative foster care placements.

Consistent with international trends, in Australia, kinship carers are often provided with lower levels of support in terms of services and monitoring than non-relative foster carers. In relation to the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle, the dominant model provides the greatest amount of assistance to the least preferred placement option.

Minimum standards of care for children should not be compromised, however the benefits of the pre-existing relationships between carers and children should be taken into account during the recruitment and assessment process. Practice issues in relation to kinship care and the ATSI community will be discussed, for example, family group conferencing may be useful in the assessment of family strengths and needs.

Presentation

Paper

Biography

The National Child Protection Clearinghouse is a specialist information, advisory research unit focusing on the prevention of child abuse and neglect. The purpose of the clearinghouse is to collect, produce and distribute information and resources, conduct research and offer specialist advice on the latest developments in child abuse prevention, family violence, child protection, and out-of-home care.

Leah Bromfield is the Senior Research Officer for the National Child Protection Clearinghouse at Australian Institute of Family Studies. She has recently submitted her PhD on the topic of chronic child maltreatment in statutory child protection services. In her PhD she compared the familial, maltreatment and statutory service provision factors associated with chronic and isolated child maltreatment.

Since her appointment to the National Child Protection Clearinghouse she has been involved in various commissioned research reports (for example, an evaluation of Australian out-of-home care research, and an investigation of the recruitment and retention of Indigenous foster and kinship carers), submissions to state and territory government and has recently undertaken a comparison of Australian statutory child protection service systems. Leah is also a member of the Australasian Statutory Learning and Development Group.