Supporting Extended Families
Kinship Services Programs are relatively new within the field of child welfare in Ontario. In February 2006, Children’s Aid Societies were directed to implement Kinship Services for the purpose of meeting safety needs and promoting permanency for those children being cared for by members of their extended family or community while receiving child protection services. This program aims to facilitate the provision of care and support consistent with family and community traditions when children are unable to remain with their family due to protection concerns.
Through our Kinship Services Program, a home assessment is required in order to evaluate the kinship caregiver’s ability to maintain the child in a safe home until there is a permanent option developed for the child. Once the home assessment is completed, the agency may provide ongoing services with the child’s kinship caregivers towards establishing a stable and permanent home for the child. In some circumstances, the most appropriate permanent option for the child may be the kinship living arrangement.
Ministry standards articulate the minimum expectations for service delivery in order to ensure that child safety is the paramount consideration without limiting the exploration of a range of permanency options and creative case planning for children who may benefit from a kinship placement. The standards are intended to support a child-focused, collaborative, strengths-based approach to service delivery.
The Goals of Seeking Alternative Living Arrangements Within the Child's Own Extended Family or Community Through the Kinship Services Are:
- To minimize the impact of removal from primary family and/or community on the child
- To build on existing relationships and to promote stability for the child
- To encourage and empower parental involvement in decision making and planning for the child
- To encourage the child’s involvement in planning for their own care
- To enable continuity of relationship between family and community members with the child
- To provide a viable alternative to admission to care
- To maintain the integrity of the child’s connection to aboriginal and other distinct cultural groups
- To engage the extended family or community in permanency planning earlier in the intervention process
- To increase the likelihood of reunification with primary family.
