Information Provision to Grandparent Kinship Carers: Responding to Their Unique Needs

Abstract

Grandparent kinship care is a growing policy concern in Australia. Availability of appropriate, timely, and up-to-date information on payments and allowances, support services, and children's needs, is an important factor in determining whether grandparent carers, and the children in their care, receive the support they need. While it is known that custodial grandparents in Australia have trouble gaining access to information and support, relatively little attention has been paid to the causes of this difficulty. Drawing from interviews with 55 service providers and policy makers from New South Wales, South Australia, and the Northern Territory, this article identifies two salient issues: the characteristics of this group, which results in special communication and information needs; and the difficulties grandparent-headed families face due to their unique relationship to the state.

Keywords:

• Kinship Care
• Information Provision
• Out-of-home Care Services

Acknowledgements

This paper draws on data collected as part of an Australian Research Council Linkage project LP0776662 ‘Grandparents as Primary Carers of their Grandchildren: A National, State and Territory Analysis of Grandparent-Headed Families – Policy and Practice Implications’. The chief investigators are Bettina Cass, Deborah Brennan, and Sue Green (UNSW), partner investigator Anne Hampshire (Mission Australia). Partner organisations: Mission Australia, SA Department for Families and Communities, NT Department of Health and Community Services, NSW Department of Community Services, and the Australian Department of Health and Community Services, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. We thank the interview and focus group participants for their time and insights.

Notes

¹We use the term “biological families” to refer to families where children live with their parents rather than foster carers or kinship carers. The term is typically used in out-of-home care research to describe the families of origin or “birth families” of children. We acknowledge that in many cases “biological families” are extended and blended families that are not constituted by biological connections.

²This paper reports on data collected as part of an Australian Research Council Linkage project LP0776662 “Grandparents as Primary Carers of their Grandchildren: A National, State and Territory Analysis of Grandparent-Headed Families – Policy and Practice Implications” (see Acknowledgements).

³Now NSW Community Services.