	Kinship Care Services

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

CA-KC 12: Caregiver Support

Support services help kin to provide care, access services for the child, and maintain family stability.

Research Note: Research suggests that kinship foster families typically access fewer services and receive less support from the child welfare system than unrelated foster parents. These disparities can often be exceptionally burdensome because kinship caregivers tend to be older and less educated than unrelated foster parents, and suffer from greater health and financial instabilities.

CA-KC 12.01

When the child is in provincial custody, caregivers are informed that:

the primary objective is reunification, or another permanent living arrangement in the child’s best interest;
maintaining contact when siblings are separated is important; and
the organisation is legally obligated to be involved with the family to safeguard the child, while respecting family privacy.

NA The organisation only provides informal kinship care services.

CA-KC 12.02

Caregivers receive assistance, directly or through referral, to provide a safe home environment.

Interpretation: Assistance in preparing a safe home environment can include working with individuals or community organisations to help families obtain needed resources to adjust to the addition of a child to the home. Resources can include furniture for the child’s room, physical adjustments to the home to accommodate special needs, or individual and family counselling.

CA-KC 12.03

Caregivers receive help obtaining support services including:

financial assistance;
legal services;
housing assistance;
food and clothing;
physical and mental health care;
homemaker services; and
respite care.

CA-KC 12.04

Caregivers are encouraged to use informal supports, including:

friends;
neighbours;
other kinship caregivers;
members of tribal, religious, and spiritual communities; and
local businesses or other community organisations.

CA-KC 12.05

The organisation works collaboratively with the caregiver and, when appropriate, with parents to identify and prepare other kin who can:

care for the child, if necessary, on a temporary or full-time basis; and
provide assistance and support to the caregiver.

CA-KC 12.06

Caregivers receive assistance to obtain:

training in basic first aid and medication administration;
certification in CPR, when necessary and appropriate;
training in parenting and discipline techniques; and
training in child development.

Update: Revised Standard, Added Interpretation, Added Related Standard - 03/01/10

CA-KC 12.06 Original Standard:

Caregivers receive assistance to obtain training on:

basic first aid, medication administration, and CPR;
parenting and discipline techniques; and
child development.

Interpretation: When caregivers provide therapeutic care to children with exceptional medical needs, CPR certification is required. In other cases, the organisation should consult with the province or other relevant public authority to determine whether and under what circumstances it is necessary and appropriate for caregivers to be certified in CPR. If it is determined that CPR certification is not necessary, the organisation should use the province or other public authority’s guidance to develop a plan for how kinship caregivers should respond in case of emergency. Appropriate responses may vary based on the geographic area that the organisation serves.

CA-KC 12.07

Caregivers are informed about, and assisted in, pursuing permanency options such as adoption, guardianship, or subsidised guardianship.

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	PURPOSE: Kinship Care Services maintain the family system as the primary source of care and preserve the continuity of care, culture, relationships, and environment essential for child safety and well-being.

RELATED FILES


	SERVICE One or more organisation-operated programmes or activities that have a common general objective and deploy the organisation’s material and human resources in a planned and systematic manner. An organisation that publicly promotes or identifies itself in writing as offering a service, is licenced to deliver a service, assigns personnel and/or space to a service, or allocates financial resources to a service is considered to offer that service.


	FAMILY Two or more people who consider themselves family and who assume obligations, functions, and responsibilities generally essential to healthy family life. Child care and child socialisation, income support, long-term care, and other care giving are among the functions of family life. The definition of “family” will rest with an individual’s indication of who plays a family member role, including current or former foster family, adoptive family, extended family members, or significant others. Organisations that believe family is the central constellation in a child’s life, and that family attachments are of primary importance for human development, will strive to work with professional staff to develop a common understanding of “family.”


	CULTURE The customs, habits, values, skills, technology, beliefs, and religious, social, and political behaviours of a group of people in a specific period of time.


	RESEARCH For purposes of COA accreditation, all forms of internal or external research involving persons served except internal programme evaluation and outcomes research, or educational projects performed by students and interns that are part of their professional training.


	FOSTER PARENTS State- or county-licenced adults who provide a temporary home for children whose birth parents are unable to care for them. Foster parents are not considered employees or personnel and are specifically referenced in all relevant standards.


	CAREGIVER The provider of physical, emotional, and social needs to another person, often dependent and unable to provide for his or her own needs. Caregiver is the generic term used for the direct service providers in Community Care and Support Services (CCS).


	PARENTS Parents can include: birth, foster, kinship, and adoptive parents. Please see service standards for more specific information about use of this term.


	CUSTODY The care, control, and maintenance of a child. The court legally can award custody to an agency in abuse and neglect cases or to parents in divorce, separation, or adoption proceedings. Child welfare departments retain legal custody and control of major decisions for a child in foster care; foster parents do not have legal custody of the children for which they provide care.


	OBJECTIVE A sub-goal stated in operational terms, i.e., a statement that makes clear what expected results are to be measured or assessed.


	COMMUNITY A specific group of people living in the same locality, and who may share a common culture, values, and norms. Communities can also be defined by race, religion, ethnicity, age, occupation, political status, interest in particular problems or outcomes, or other common bonds. The term "community" encompasses worksites, schools, residential neighbourhoods, business districts, recreational sites, and health and human service sites.


	TRAINING Instruction so as to make fit, qualified, or proficient in a skill or body of knowledge.


	MEDICATION A prescribed or over-the-counter drug that is injected, taken orally, applied topically, or otherwise administered.


	ADMINISTRATION The personnel responsible for management functions of the organisation, including fiscal management, human resources, and service delivery. Such personnel determine organisational goals, acquire and allocate resources to carry out a programme, coordinate activities toward goal achievement, and monitor, evaluate, and make needed changes in processes and procedures to improve the likelihood of goal achievement. The term is synonymously used with MANAGEMENT.


	CERTIFICATION Assurance from a provincial or professional association that a person or organisation possesses certain attributes, knowledge, or skills.


	SPECIAL NEEDS A designation used in reference to conditions or characteristics of a person that reflect a need for special care, services, or treatment. When the term is used in the context of adoption services, special needs refers to conditions that make a child harder to place for adoption. This includes children who are members of sibling groups, older children, children with disabilities, children of certain racial /ethnic backgrounds, etc. When the term is used in the context of foster care it refers to the need for a higher degree of specialised case services and attention due to mental and physical disabilities. When the term is used in the context of out-of-school time services, a child or youth may have special physical, behavioural, medical, emotional, or cognitive needs that should be addressed or accomodated. The term is also used in other contexts. See also DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES.


	CASE A general term used to designate clients (including individuals, families, and groups) served by an organisation for purposes of monitoring the provision of services. A foster care case is generally based on the placement of an individual child, although casework for the child may include services to the child’s family. A child protective services case is based on an entire family household if a family assessment model is used; otherwise a case is defined as a child.