31st
October 2007
Kinship Carers Equality Call
MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Duncan
McNeil, is encouraged by hints from Minister for Children and Early Years, Adam
Ingram, that kinship carers may be given the same rights and support as foster
carers.
But
he has warned that this cannot remain a vague aspiration and that steps must be
taken to make it happen.
Speaking
after a debate in the Scottish Parliament during which he raised the
difficulties facing many local kinship carers to whom he had spoken, Mr McNeil
said:
“Kinship
carers take in a grandchild, niece, or nephew in difficult circumstances and for
the best of motives. All-too-often,
they are being forced to rescue a child from its own parents who, because of
drug abuse, are incapable or unwilling to look after them.
“But
the system doesn’t back these grans and granddads, aunts and uncles –
instead, it conspires against them. It
gives, for example, addicts legal aid to launch court actions to prevent
grandparents protecting the child. Benefits
go to the addict mother, rather than whoever’s actually caring for the child.
“The
Minister has given us a clear signal that he feels kinship carers should be
recognised and supported. If he is
serious about getting kinship carers the rights and support they deserve, then I
applaud him for it. But he must set
out clear plans about how he will make this a reality.”
Closing
the debate in the Scottish Parliament, the Minister had told MSPs:
“In
July, I announced an initial £4 million package for training, advice and
information for foster and kinship carers. The funding provided agencies with a training grant of £1,000
for each full-time foster carer and each kinship carer of a looked-after child.
“Members
might view the equality of treatment of foster carers and kinship carers as
something of a signal of future intentions.”
He
added:
“We
have also extended the grant to include kinship carers of children who do not
fall into the looked-after child category, but who are known by their local
authority to be vulnerable and in need.”
Earlier
in the debate, Mr McNeil had recounted the difficulties kinship carers face:
“Members
have mentioned today the role of grandparents, the extended family and the
adoption services when we need to rescue children from the direst of
circumstances and give them a place of safety.
“Like
most members, I have a grandparents’ group in my area – it is right that we
mention them in debates such as this. As
the minister will know, the issues that those groups have are not solely about
money, although there is a grievance about that: they are at the wrong time of
their life and they find difficulty in seeing young children through their
education.
“There
is also a difficulty in respect of the relationships with social workers, who
sometimes see grandparents as interfering when they try to intervene in the
interests of the children. Grandparents
are also aggrieved that social workers turn up when the children’s parents
have been jailed and ask them to take the children. But, if the grandparents rush in and prevent the situation
from worsening, they are left with the children and given only basic support. The
carers who tell me this do not want to victimise drug addicts, but they are
living with the reality of having a child who is a drug addict who has children.
“When
the grandparents try to get some certainty into the young person's life – as
opposed to the to-ing and fro-ing, the yo-yo system of going back and forth
between the parents and the grandparents – and move legally to adopt the
child, they receive the final insult. It
can cost them, on fixed incomes and with limited means, £2,000 to adopt their
grandchild, to take them out of their misery and give some permanence to their
life. Also, the addict can then suddenly become interested, not in the child,
but in the benefits that they recognise will move with the child to the
grandparent when their legal status changes.”
ENDS
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