Support Kin Carers Support For The Left Behind Children Of The Female Migrant Workers

For many children who come from a looked after care status, moving around from home to home can lead to many negative issues such as low self esteem, lack of self respect, increased levels of truancy as they feel not wanted or that they don’t belong. Children in a looked after care status may be looked after by grandparents. Lack of money for pensioners may lead to little or no activities for the child and they may not be able to go out to play, have few friends or be bullied by their peers, much depends on their grandparents age and also their ability to be able to encourage and promote activities with the child.

There are many social, economical and cultural factors that impact on the lives of children and young people. In my role as a Young Carer’s Support Worker, I work with a number of families living with the consequences of these factors. Every Child Matters (ECM) aims to improve the outcomes and life chances of every child and young person, therefore, it is important we understand and do all we can to help them achieve the 5 outcomes of the ECM, stay safe, be healthy, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution, and, achieve economic well-being.

It focuses on support to families and carers for effective parenting, fostering or child care.

Raising children is one of the most important responsibilities in any society. Today, working parents have many options, but what about those children who have neither a mother nor father? What about those children who come from broken and abusive homes? In such cases there are often few choices. Parentless children may be placed in orphanages or in foster homes. Ideally, foster care offers children more personalized attention than would normally be available at a public or private situation. However, orphanage care is notoriously uneven. While some children are indeed in loving homes, others find themselves neglected or

Children become looked after when their parents are unable to provide on-going care in either a temporary or permanent capacity.

Until recently, there has been little attention given to basic issues regarding siblings in out-of-home care (McCormick, 2010, p.198). There are many reasons as to why this should be important to child welfare researchers and policy makers. “Sibling relationships are an integral part of childhood and continued development and these sibling relationships can serve as a source of protection and healing throughout their journey in out of home care” (Cicirelli, 1995).

Cavaye J. (2010) ‘Unit 1: Becoming and Being a Carer’ K101 resources P7. The Open

In the United States 21% of all children are living below the federal poverty line. 2.9 million cases of child abuse and neglect are reported every year in the United States. 428,000 children are in the foster care system, and 107,918 foster children are waiting to be adopted. The foster care system is temporary out of home care for neglected, abused and impoverish children under 18. While the foster care system has all positive ideas, they fall short in providing certain needs for these children. Kids not only in America but all over the world that are living in poverty, are abused, neglected, and have an unstable home life. Nobody wants to live a life like that, especially not a child. They don’t know how to support themselves on their own, they need a family and a guardian that will take care of them, support, and love them.

With child placement becoming more difficult everyday, the practice of kin placement has increased significantly within the past two decades. Kinship care is the placement of a maltreated or otherwise vulnerable youth in the care and protection of a known relative or adult with a recognized kin bond (Ryan, Hong, Herz,, & Hernandez, 2010.) Today approximately 26% of children in foster care are in kinship care placement (Cheng, 2010.)

They can also work with parents and carers in the care and treatment of vulnerable children, providing support to the families to help them achieve better parenting skills.

The majority of carers are women (finch and groves 1983) and significant proportions are under the age of 18. This is known as a young carer, which is defined as ‘someone, under the age of 18, who looks after, or helps to care for, a family member who has a disability, mental ill health, a blood borne virus or a problematic use of drugs or alcohol. They may provide hands-on caring, and/or may be affected themselves by someone in their family who needs care’ (Dundee Carers Centre, 2009). There are difficulties identifying young carers because many do not disclose their caring role for fear of being separated from their parents and family members, bullying and social exclusion. Also there is a large amount of emotional strain for younger carers who do not access the services they are entitled to.

They may become resentful at missing out on their childhood and present challenging behaviour. They may suffer anxiety whilst away from home and worry about their parent, resulting in a failure to engage in their education. They may not fulfil their potential in life as much of it will be dedicated to being a carer. Having a parent with a long term illness or disability could also lead to financial hardship due to lack of employment.

A current issue for both male and female parents and carers is the ability to function positively amidst the various responsibilities and expectations of society. In today’s society, however, various types of support are available that assists in enhancing the confidence and wellbeing of these parents and carers. Informal support is the assistance gained from relatives, friends or neighbours of parents and carers. This type of support is beneficial for both male and female parents and carers, as they are able to function more effectively with a stronger support system to assist them

Kinship care is the full-time care and nurturing of a child by a relative or someone who has a significant emotional relationship with the child. If children must be separate from their parents, either voluntarily or by court order, kinship care should be the first placement option explored by the child welfare agency. The Federal Government endorsed this practice most recently in the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008. Placing children in Kinship care helps States’ compliance with Federal requirements to provide children with safety, stability, and permanency. It also meets provisions of the Fostering Connection Act that requires agencies to notify relatives when

Culturally is it unusual that Lanesha’s grandmother is her primary caregiver? I would like to say no to this question, but the facts behind this issue don’t support it. Within the African American community, approximately 12% of African American children nationally are cared for by their grandparents, compared to approximately 7% of Hispanic children and 4% of non-Hispanic White children (NCBI, 2010). Lanesha and her grandmother are part of a larger issue that is reflected in today’s society. Several reasons can exist for this paradigm, anything from the parents needing complete education, the grandparents supplementing expensive daycare costs, or simply because the parents are not involved in the child’s life.