Where support can do better

“We now get support financially through the kinship team. We have had the kids in our care for almost 2 years. Unfortunately when the kids came to stay here we spoke with social work on one occasion and then heard absolutely nothing from them until very recently as there was a concern that mum wanted the kids back and up until recently we didn’t have a legal order so she could have legally taken them back into our care so this had been flagged up to Social Work by another professional and a social worker came to see us, a few days later we received the order from the court so the case was closed again. 

“We were really disappointed in the lack of any kind of support for the first 18 months of the kids being here. If we hadn’t taken them in then they would have been in care (the social worker that came to see us recently basically said that and said that if we had refused to take the kids we would have gotten financial support sooner which I find really awful, we were also told that families actually do refuse which we could never have imagined doing!) but still were offered no support and no financial support at all, not even any advice. We also had to pay for the court process ourselves due to us both working full time. We now have residency and PR&Rs (Parental Rights and Responsibilities) for the children. 

“Sorry if I sound negative about the situation but I do feel that there should have been more support for us and the kids for the first 18 months.”