Guidance
Norfolk Children’s Services’
Kinship Team
What do we mean by “kinship”?
A child is considered to be in a “kinship” arrangement when they do not live with
their birth parents or step-parents, and instead live with another family member or
person connected to them.
This could be a private family arrangement which requires no involvement from Children’s
Services: the family arranged it themselves with no involvement from us; the parents
continue to be fully responsible for the welfare and maintenance of their child. Should a
child in this situation require help form Children’s Services, it is accessed in the same way
as for any child, i.e. referral through MASH by the family, the child or a professional
involved with the child.
A private arrangement made by the parents is considered to be Private Fostering where
a child lives with somebody who is not a: grandparent, sibling, uncle, aunt or step-parent;
for 28 days or more on a full-time basis. This includes children sent to the UK for
education or health care by parents who are overseas, and older teenagers living with their
partner’s family. [Please note, if Children’s Services have been instrumental in planning
this arrangement where child protection concerns exist, it is likely that it will be considered
that Children’s Services have placed the child, meaning the child will be considered a
Looked After Child, therefore meaning it is not a Private Fostering arrangement.]
Children might also live with family members or family friends because Children’s Services
are involved with the family and would have safeguarding concerns for the child should
they continue to live with their parents or returned to live with their parents. This covers
children leaving mainstream foster care prior to age 18 for whom it would be unsafe to
return to parents. The legal classifications for these children and their care arrangements
include:

The child being a “looked after child” in a temporary fostering arrangement subject to
an Interim Care Order, Full Care Order or s. 20 of the Children Act 1989, subject to all
of the same regulations and payments as other looked after children.

The child being a “looked after child” in a fostering arrangement subject to an Interim
Care Order, Care Order or s. 20 of the Children Act 1989, subject to all of the same
regulations and payments as other looked after children.

The child may have children’s services involved under s.17 of the Children Act 1989, or
may have no ongoing involvement with Children’s Services, and live with relatives
under a Special Guardianship Order.

A court may have decided where the child should live by a Child Arrangement Order.
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Guidance
Why is Norfolk now having a dedicated Kinship Team?

To focus on supporting children to remain within their families.

To reduce the number of children “looked after” – Ofsted have found that the local
authorities who have dedicated Kinship Teams have successfully and significantly
reduced the number of Looked After Children in their care, by focussing more clearly
on identifying kinship possibilities, then supporting kinship arrangements adequately to
prevent breakdown.

To give families a consistent response across the county – front line teams will be
able to seek advice from Kinship Team colleagues in regards to correctly identifying
and assessing kinship arrangements.

To better meet our legal responsibilities – Norfolk Children’s Services has a
responsibility to identify, assess and review Private Fostering arrangements, and
ensure that Special Guardianship arrangements are reviewed annually – this work
does not fit neatly elsewhere in the latest restructure.

To reduce duplication of work – many of these arrangements cross over at times
from one type of arrangement to another. Having a Kinship team will hopefully result in
a more joined up approach, where work that has already been completed by one team,
can be utilised by another.

We expect kinship arrangements to increase –
 In the year 2014-2015, CAFCASS saw an increase of 25% in Special Guardianship
Orders being granted. In Norfolk we have 477 already in existence that will require
annual review.
 The implementation of Signs of Safety across the county should mean that
alternative family members are identified much earlier as potential alternative
carers, potentially reducing the use of mainstream foster care but increasing kinship
care.
 Research strongly indicates that children enjoy greater placement stability and fell a
greater sense of belonging when placed with family members, there is a legal duty
to consider family members and people in the child’s existing network first, and
workers are reporting that they feel judges are more inclined to favour family
placements in light of the Re B-S (2014) ruling.

The large numbers of migrants crossing Europe could result in Norfolk identifying many
children in Kinship arrangements who come to live in our authority.
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Guidance
Where will Kinship Care work be allocated?
Due to the high quantity of work associated with Kinship Care and capacity within the
teams, it will not be possible at this current time for the Kinship Team to undertake all
assessments and all support. The current Kinship team has 4.5 social workers to cover
the whole county. Should capacity increase in the future we can review the arrangements
below:

Private Fostering assessments will be undertaken by the Kinship Team.

Fostering assessments involving applicants already connected to the child (family or
friends) will continue to be undertaken by the Fostering Recruitment Team with
continued input from the child’s social worker.

Supervision of family and friends who become approved foster carers, will continue to
be undertaken by the Fostering Supervision teams.

Viability assessments of potential Special Guardians will continue to be undertaken by
front line teams.

Assessment of Special Guardians will continue to be undertaken by front line teams.

Looked After Children in a Kinship care arrangement will continue to be supported by
the Looked After Teams in the same way as before.

Supervised contact where Children’s Services feel it needs to be supervised by
ourselves, will continue to be supervised by the Homebased support team.

Special Guardian Support will remain with the allocated team whilst the case is still
open.

Special Guardians where the case is closed will go through MASH and be assessed or
supported in the same way as for anyone calling Children’s Services.

Reviewing Special Guardian Support plans will be undertaken by the Kinship Team,
with the financial aspect continuing to be reviewed by the finance department.
So what’s new?

Kinship carers will be able to access an advice line Tuesdays and Thursdays
09:30-13:30.

Special Guardianship arrangements will be consistently reviewed by the Kinship Team
and Finance department.

Letterbox contact on closed cases will be overseen by the Kinship team.

Issues with supervised contact on closed cases will be supported by the Kinship Team.

Social Workers and colleagues can speak with members of the Kinship Team for
advice on the correct identification and assessment of Kinship cases.

The Kinship Team will be assessing all Private Fostering arrangements and promoting
their identification with our partner agencies.
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Guidance
What is happening next for Norfolk Children’s Services Kinship Care?
A new dual assessment is likely to replace the current Special Guardianship Assessment
and Kinship Fostering assessment so that families only have to be assessed once, even if
being considered for two options. This will also mean that families are treated the same in
terms of assessing whether they can care for the child/ren in their care, regardless of legal
terminology – after all they are the same people looking after the same children with the
same needs regardless. As a worker you will notice a change in the layout of the form you
are filling in, but your assessment skills remain the same.
The Kinship Team will be liaising with CareFirst to look at whether we should be able to
call somebody a “Special Guardian” on the child’s network, and allow us to service the
SGO reviews.
When teams close a case where a Special Guardianship Order has been granted, there
may be an additional step to ensure that the relevant information is easily available for
effective review in the years to come.
The Kinship team will be setting up a kinship support group for kinship carers to be able to
attend if they wish.
What happens if a Kinship Care case needs help in the future?
Open cases will continue to be worked by the already allocated social worker.
Closed cases will go through MASH and be allocated in the same way as for any family.
MASH can give them the Kinship advice helpline as one of the options where a low level of
need is identified.
Who works in the Kinship Team?

Team manager – Greg Lassey: 07881 664933

Senior Social Worker – Richard Mortimer: 01603 306302 / 07799 074308

Senior Social Worker – Teresa Sloan: 01603 729268 / 07776 453750

Social Worker – Caroline Spragg: 01603 729266 / 07824 569483
(works Wednesday, Thursday & Friday)

Social Worker – Shamima Hossain: 01603 223688 / 07826 512558

Social Worker – Stacie Sullivan: 01603 223748 / 07825 106384
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Date created/revised: Dec 2015
Guidance
Important Contact details for Kinship Cases
If a kinship arrangement has ended for which the carers are being
paid, the allocated team must inform the appropriate finance team
promptly on:
SGO & CAO = email csbusinesssupportSGO&[email protected]
Fostering = email [email protected]
For advice on a kinship case contact any of the team members listed
above.
The following address can be given for letterbox contact:
Kinship Letterbox
Children’s Services
Level Four,
County Hall,
Martineau Lane,
Norwich,
Norfolk
NR1 2DH
Advice line for Kinship carers is available
Tuesdays and Thursdays 09:30-13:30:
01603 224131
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INET number:
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Version number:
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Date created/revised: Dec 2015