Assessment in kinship foster care: A new tool to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses

Abstract

Placement in kinship family has existed informally throughout the times. There are many countries in which the kinship family care is the measure most used for child protection. However, it is a subject of continuous debate. One of the major issues it is the constitution of the foster care without the evaluation of the family, and often the child is placed directly to grandparents and uncles by the mere fact of being direct family. The article presents a tool to evaluate extended families in order to assure the welfare of the child. The tool was built by a cooperative research where 126 professionals from 7 regions of Spain participated. The instrument can identify the strengths and weaknesses of families on 6 domains: personal characteristics, the coverage of basic needs, the collaboration with professionals, the family structure and dynamics, the relationship between family, child and biological family and, finally the attitude towards the placement. The tool is innovative while providing elements to work more effectively and introduces the opportunity to reflect upon the skills of the kinship foster care family, the needs of support, and the families that are unfitting to take care of the child. To conclude, the instrument tries to overcome one of the principal disadvantages of kinship foster care: the lack of knowledge about the kinship family.