Understanding Kinship Care in Australia

The Essentials of Kinship Care

Paloma Cesare: Alright, welcome back to Critical Reflection Week 5, and today, we're jumping into a pretty central topic for Australian child and family practice—kinship care. I’m Paloma, and as always I’m here with Agnieszka. G’day, Agnieszka, how are you?

5b8776d2: Hi Paloma, yes, very good. It’s feeling a bit warmer in Brisbane, my dog’s loving it, and honestly, it’s a relief from those cold winters in Poland. Anyway, let’s get into kinship care. So, maybe to start with just a definition—kinship care is basically when a child who can’t live with their parents is cared for by someone from their extended family or even close friends. And this arrangement can be formal, like through child protection or a court order, or informal, where families just sort of...work it out themselves, yeah?

Paloma Cesare: Exactly. There’s actually a lot more informal kinship care happening than people realise—some research suggests informal arrangements could be up to three times more common than the formal ones we usually see reported. That’s huge, isn’t it?

5b8776d2: Yeah, it is, and the data backs that up. There’s about 46,000 children in formal out-of-home care across Australia, but in 2016, nearly half of those—so over 20,000—were in formal kinship care. But because informal arrangements aren’t tracked in the same way, we really don't have a clear picture of the full scope.

Paloma Cesare: And the majority of kinship carers, officially, are grandmothers, but you also see aunts, uncles, older siblings, and even close family friends stepping in. There’s something powerful about kids being able to stay within their family network—research shows kinship care tends to be more stable, kids have better wellbeing on average, and they can maintain those important kin relationships. Kids even say they prefer it over other care models like foster or residential care.

5b8776d2: And I think that ties in with what we were saying back in episode two about the importance of cultural continuity for Indigenous communities. Kin means connection, belonging—things that Western models can overlook. But—there's an important but here—these benefits to children can mean a lot of pressure and cost for carers themselves. That’s why kinship carers, particularly grandmothers, often face more vulnerabilities than foster carers: they're older, sometimes in poorer health, and very often living in relative poverty or isolation.

Paloma Cesare: Absolutely. And systemically, they’re at a disadvantage too. Formal kinship carers—so those involved in the child protection or court systems—sometimes have a tiny bit more access to resources or legal protections. Informal carers, on the other hand, are basically left to figure it all out themselves—no guaranteed financial support, little recognition, and almost always more hoops to jump through to access things like Centrelink or services. I just have to share this quick story—I once worked in regional Queensland with a grandmother who suddenly had three grandkids placed with her overnight, no warning, and it took her months to even get basic financial support. There was this sense that kin should just manage. It’s not fair, and it’s unfortunately, really common.

5b8776d2: And it’s, sorry, just, I’ve seen this in my own work as well—there's a kind of invisible expectation that family will absorb the shock, even when they're struggling already. The research says that too: kinship carers are assumed to be able to just cope, but the need for specialized support is actually higher than for foster carers in many cases.

Paloma Cesare: Yep, it's like the "Cinderella" of care systems—highly valued but the least resourced. I think we'll come back to some of these challenges when we talk about specific needs in the next section, especially around violence and the gaps in support...

Complex Needs, Violence, and Vulnerability

5b8776d2: So, let’s dig into those needs. Kinship families—especially carers—are navigating so many layers, right? There are the things we might expect: financial, legal, and practical supports, but also emotional support, advocacy, information...the list just keeps going. And yet, they’re often left without clear guidance on where to go, or even what they’re entitled to.

Paloma Cesare: Totally, and for many the practical problems—like getting financial payments sorted, or finding affordable childcare or counselling—can feel insurmountable. There are access issues too: lots of information is online, but not everyone has digital literacy or internet at home, especially grandparents who might not have grown up with computers. And even when there are programs, the eligibility might only include certain types of carers. It's a mess.

5b8776d2: And it’s not just money, is it? Legal challenges pop up all the time—sometimes carers spend years in court just trying to get a formal guardianship order, while the parents might resist those orders for financial reasons, or out of fear, or grief. Meanwhile, the kinship carer is fronting the bill for lawyers, often spending whatever little savings they had.

Paloma Cesare: And the human cost can be so much bigger. Kinship carers—especially if they’re grandparents—may be grieving themselves. They’re suddenly “the parent” again, sometimes after decades, and managing really complicated relationships with their own child, the biological parent of the kids in their care. It can fracture whole families. The emotional burden is just...so heavy sometimes.

5b8776d2: All of that is the backdrop to a major risk factor in these homes: family violence. It's actually under-reported in kinship care because carers—maybe out of shame, or fear their grandkids will be removed—just try to manage alone. That can be violence between adults, or from the parents of the children, or even something researchers call “adolescent violence in the home”—where children, often traumatized themselves, become violent or controlling with their carers. It’s multi-layered.

Paloma Cesare: Yeah, in practice we see this play out in some really heartbreaking ways. There are two case studies in the literature that really stand out to me—Rachel and Margaret. Both are caring for multiple grandchildren because their adult children are unable to safely parent—due to violence, trauma, substance use, all these intersecting vulnerabilities. In Rachel’s case, she’s caring for three grandchildren, has chronic illness, PTSD herself, and the children have significant trauma and developmental needs. Meanwhile, Sarah—their mum—wants contact but isn’t safe to have unsupervised access. So, Rachel’s caught trying to keep everyone safe but is unsupported because—well, there’s this expectation she’ll figure it out.

5b8776d2: And Margaret’s story is similar. She cares for four grandchildren, lives on an age pension in public housing, with barely any official support. She’s spent all her retirement savings just getting guardianship. Most distressing is that not only has she endured violence from her daughter, Samantha, but now one of the kids, Jacob, has started to act out violently too. It’s intergenerational trauma, and the system isn’t always well-equipped to step in early, or in ways that don't just further destabilize things.

Paloma Cesare: These stories highlight just how complex the needs are—and how easy it is for social workers to see only risk and crisis, instead of underlying structural and relational issues. It’s not just about a one-off referral or a payment—it’s about really understanding their context, their grief, their strengths, and their vulnerabilities. The risk, without support, is families burn out or placements break down, which just perpetuates trauma for everyone involved.

5b8776d2: And as practitioners, we need to constantly check in on our assumptions—are we genuinely prioritizing their safety and needs, or just ticking off checklists? What services can we really connect them to? Are we advocating at the right system level? Sometimes a carer’s need for advocacy, or just for someone to actually listen and not judge, can’t be overstated.

Paloma Cesare: I agree. I’m thinking maybe we can move into trauma-informed care, because that’s really where things can shift from ‘just managing risk’ to actually promoting healing and stability for kinship families…

Trauma-Informed Approaches for Kinship Families

5b8776d2: Yeah, absolutely. Trauma-informed care is, in my view, essential for kinship care practice. And it’s a lot more than just a buzzword—we're talking about a framework that focuses on safety, supportive relationships, and helping both kids and carers manage big emotions. Because both carers and children in these situations are likely to have experienced significant trauma, sometimes over generations.

Paloma Cesare: That’s the thing—it’s not just the kids who need support, but the carers too. Trauma isn’t just the event, it’s the impact—on self-worth, relationships, stress tolerance. For some carers, especially if they've survived family violence or are reliving old patterns, the pressure to hold everything together can be overwhelming.

5b8776d2: And then there’s vicarious trauma, right? Taking care of traumatized children, especially when you’re already vulnerable yourself, can really wear people down. That’s why those three pillars—safety, connection, and emotional regulation—are so important. If we don’t address that underlying trauma, behaviour support and routine parenting advice just won’t cut it.

Paloma Cesare: From a practice perspective, some basic steps actually make a big difference. A proper holistic assessment—looking at not just the risks but also strengths, safety, and supports. Implementing safety plans is also crucial, especially if there’s ongoing risk of violence from biological parents or even from the kids. And supporting healthy connections where possible—sometimes that means setting really clear boundaries with parents, which can be tough but necessary.

5b8776d2: Yeah, in one of my earlier roles in Melbourne, I worked with a kinship family who were completely overwhelmed—multiple generations with trauma, and very little system help. We shifted our approach to prioritize trauma-informed principles: we spent time just building trust, making sure everyone felt safe, and offering regular emotional check-ins, including for the carer. And honestly, that family didn’t just stabilize in terms of “not being in crisis”—the children actually seemed to thrive, and the grandma felt confident, rather than constantly anxious or suspicious of services.

Paloma Cesare: And ongoing professional support matters for us as practitioners, too. I know supervision and reflective practice have helped me think through some really tricky kinship care cases—to pause and ask, am I seeing the whole family, or just focusing on the loudest crisis of the day?

5b8776d2: Exactly—reflective practice is absolutely vital. The system is complex, and so are these families. If we just react, rather than reflect, it’s so easy to miss their strengths, or to burn out ourselves. That’s something we’ll continue to talk about in future episodes, because it underpins so much of good social work. Well, Paloma, any last thoughts?

Paloma Cesare: Just that kinship carers are doing incredible work, often with very little recognition or help. Our job is to see the person behind the role, advocate for fairer supports, and, honestly, be willing to get a bit uncomfortable in the face of systemic gaps. So thanks everyone for joining us for another round of Critical Reflection. We’ll be back next week with more on working with vulnerable families. Thanks for the chat, Agnieszka!

5b8776d2: Thank you, Paloma, always a pleasure to reflect together. Thanks everyone—take care, and see you in the next episode!