Calling all Kinship Carers!

Kinship carers in Orkney are being invited to get together for a “cuppa and chat” at the Storehouse Restaurant, Kirkwall, on Tuesday 18 April from 1-3pm.

The “Real Talk” informal gathering is a chance for kinship carers - also known as family and friends’ carers – to connect in a safe, peer led environment, to offer support and friendship, and to share their experiences.

Kinship care is where a child or young person lives full-time with a relative or friend because they are unable to live with their birth parents.

It is an alternative to foster or residential care whereby a child can live with a family member, or sometimes a very close friend, to offer stability and a continued sense of belonging in the aftermath of family breakdown.

Some kinship carers care for children on an informal basis, although some apply directly to the court for an order to grant them parental responsibility. In the UK today, thousands of extended family members care for children because their birth parents cannot.