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Special guardianship and kinship care

How can special guardians and kinship carers be better supported to provide safe and stable homes for children?

By bringing together existing evidence on the use and effectiveness of special guardianship orders, our aim is to inform guidance and best practice on the way the family justice system prepares and supports kinship carers for this life-changing responsibility.

A girl tries on shoes in a shop as an older woman looks on.

Why we need research into special guardianship and kinship care


Research shows that special guardianship orders (SGOs) provide children with a safe, permanent home with family members when the court decides they cannot live with their birth parents.

The use of SGOs—where one or more individuals, usually family members, are given parental responsibility for a child who cannot live with their birth parents—is increasing. Over 21,000 children have been placed with special guardians following care proceedings since 2010/11.

As the proportion of SGOs has risen, so the proportion of placement orders paving the way for adoption fell between 2010/11 and 2016/17. This shift is one of the most significant trends in child placement in recent years.

But local authorities and the courts face major challenges in providing special guardians with adequate preparation and support, leading to avoidable and significant stress that is potentially damaging to children’s futures.

What we are doing


  • Nuffield FJO commissioned a review in response to the Court of Appeal’s call for authoritative, evidence-based guidance for the use of SGOs.  It was led by Dr John Simmonds from CoramBAAF and Professor Judith Harwin from Lancaster University.
  • The review was used to inform the Public Law Working Group’s recommendations (PDF) to achieve best practice in the child protection and family justice systems within special guardianship, published in June 2020.

Explore our research on special guardianship and kinship care

Resource

Contact | Special guardianship and kinship care | 2020

Contact following placement in care, adoption, or special guardianship: implications for children and young people’s well-being

Those involved in decision-making about the ongoing contact that a child has with their extended family after they have been placed in residential settings or with foster carers, adopters, or special guardians, are required by law to put the welfare of the child first. But what do we know…

Resource type

Report
Summary

Region

International

Methodology

Evidence review
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Externally reviewed
Resource

Special guardianship and kinship care | 2020

Special guardianship: a review of the evidence

This briefing paper highlights the main findings of research led by John Simmonds OBE (CoramBAAF) and Professor Judith Harwin (Lancaster University) in 2019. In addition to reviews of the literature on special guardianship in England, and the international evidence on kinship care, the research also captured practitioner insights. The use…

Resource type

Report
Summary

Region

International

Methodology

Evidence review
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Resource

Special guardianship and kinship care | Supervision orders | 2019

The contribution of supervision orders and special guardianship to children’s lives and family justice

The research team wish to express their thanks to Rob Street and Ash Patel, Nuffield Foundation for their valuable comments. We would also like to thank Teresa Williams and Tracey Budd, formerly of the Nuffield Foundation, for their support and guidance throughout the project. We would also like to thank colleagues…

Resource type

Report
Summary

Region

England

Methodology

Case file analysis
National administrative data
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Infographic

What do we know about children in the family justice system?

Our infographic pulls together what we know, and what we don’t know, about children’s journeys through the family justice system from national data.

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