(Download) "Grandparents Raising Their Grandchildren: An Uneasy Position (Report)" by Elder Law Review # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Grandparents Raising Their Grandchildren: An Uneasy Position (Report)
- Author : Elder Law Review
- Release Date : January 01, 2010
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 86 KB
Description
BACKGROUND Over the past 25 years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of children being raised by their grandparents, due primarily to the inability of the children's parents to effectively meet their parenting responsibilities. (3) Reasons for this phenomenon include a number of changes in family structure and social conditions, (4) as well as the trend internationally towards placing children at risk into 'kinship care' rather than 'foster care' (5). In Australia, recent figures (6) indicate that there are approximately 31,000 children in formal out-of-home care, an increase of almost 10% on the previous 12 months and a 115% increase in the last 10 years. Forty-five percent (approximately 14,000) of these children were in kinship care, with more than half (7,723) residing in NSW. However, it is important to note in interpreting such statistics that these relate only to formal kinship care, that is when children have been officially placed in the care of an extended family member by state welfare authorities, and do not include informal kinship care, that is when the care of children has been arranged by the family without the involvement of child protection or welfare authorities. Whilst it is often not self-evident, other studies have pointed out that 'kinship care' often translates as 'grandparent care', with grandparents, especially maternal grandmothers, being the most frequent caregivers of children in out-of-home care. (7) The policy context that underpins such arrangements is complex, since grandparent care remains somewhat precariously positioned at the crossroads of state/family provision (8). As Cashmore and Ainsworth (9) signal, much more needs to be addressed in terms of the impacts of federal and state social policy systems in areas such as income support, childcare services, child protection, family support services, physical and mental health services and the like, particularly as these pertain to the wellbeing of grandparents and the children for whom they care.