Seeking social workers' views on family and friends care

Are you a local authority children's services social worker, social work manager or practitioner? If so, could you spare 10 minutes to complete this short questionnaire about your experience and views of family and friends care?

This survey is a crucial part of a research study (Understanding Family and Friends Care) being conducted by Family Rights Group in partnership with the University of Oxford. This is exploring how the support available to family and friends carers, and the children they are bringing up,  is linked to their needs and the legal status of the arrangements i.e. family and friends foster care, special guardianship or residence order, informal care.

In the first part of the study we interviewed 95 kinship carers and conducted an online survey of almost 500, follow the link to read a summary of the study Understanding family and friends care: the relationship between need, support and legal status. This, however, only gives us a partial perspective. Hence we are now in the process of interviewing a range of practitioners, within local authorities and the family justice system, who can help us understand how decisions are made about support and legal status. We consider it is particularly important to hear from front-line social workers and managers, as well as practitioners in specialist roles such as kinship teams.

All the information you give will be confidential and not divulged to third parties. It will be of great assistance to us in working to ensure that children living in family and friends care, and their carers, receive the support they need to achieve the best possible outcomes for the children.