Caring for a child when its parents can’t? The state takes you for a mug | Louise Tickle

Special guardians and kinship carers make huge sacrifices – and save councils a fortune. But all they get in return is exploitation

Nobody likes being played. It’s especially galling when you know from the get-go that you’re being set up. But when you’re asked in grave tones by a social worker if you’ll take in your grandchild because their mum or dad – your son or daughter – isn’t providing a safe home, then, for most people, it’s a request that’s impossible to refuse. Especially if the alternative is foster care, or, most upsetting of all, adoption. No matter that you suspect your local authority is desperate to get this child off its hands on the cheap: whatever the deal on the table, the deep emotional connection you have with a child you’ve loved since it was a baby means you’ll most likely suck it up.

Related: Councils 'underpaying guardians and not offering full support'

For 95% of 180,000 children looked after by family or friends in England there’s ​no entitlement to statutory support​

Related: Foster carers are more than parents - it's important to recognise that | Kevin Williams

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from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2kaN5vD