Family network and kinship care
The Family Network approach is about actively involving a child’s extended family, friends and trusted members of their community whenever possible. Family-led decisions will form the basis of a plan to ensure the child’s safety, stability and wellbeing.
Professionals will focus on developing strong relationships with the family. From the very start of their involvement, they will help to identify the child’s trusted family network.
The professional will then provide support to the family to create the family-led plan that draws on the family’s strengths and resources.
This approach:
- promotes family ownership and self-determination, reducing reliance on statutory services.
- ensures plans are culturally appropriate, sustainable, and rooted in relationships that last beyond agency involvement; and
- aligns with child protection principles by focusing on keeping children safely within their family network wherever possible.
For more information on how we support kinship carers, see Kinship Care.