Adoption and fostering are not the only options. It’s time to invest in kinship care | Louise Tickle

It’s a struggle to get vulnerable children adopted. Their relatives should be offered funding and practical help if they can provide homes

The grandmother of Elsie Scully-Hicks, the 18-month-old girl murdered in Cardiff last year by one of her two adoptive fathers – who was convicted last month – had been rejected in her attempt to become her granddaughter’s court-appointed special guardian.

Despite having been in regular contact with her granddaughter while she was in foster care, and being deemed suitable to look after two of Elsie’s older siblings, Sian O’Brien said – in her victim impact statement read out in court – that she was told by the Vale of Glamorgan council that she wouldn’t be able to cope with Elsie too.

Related: More children than ever need our help. But they are being ignored | Ray Jones

Continue reading...

from Children | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2BSD1yX