Mandi MacDonald

Understanding informal kinship care: a critical narrative review of theory and research

Many children are cared for on a full-time basis by relatives or adult friends, rather than their biological parents, and often in response to family crises. These kinship care arrangements have received increasing attention from the social science academy and social care professions. However, more information is needed on informal kinship care that is undertaken without official ratification by welfare agencies and often unsupported by the state. This article presents a comprehensive, narrative review of international, research literature on informal, kinship care to address this gap. Using systematic search and review protocols, it synthesises findings regarding: (i) the way that informal kinship care is defined and conceptualised; (ii) the needs of the carers and children; and (iii) ways of supporting this type of care. A number of prominent themes are highlighted including the lack of definitional clarity; the various adversities experienced by the families; and the requirement to understand the interface between formal and informal supports. Key messages are finally identified to inform the development of family friendly policies, interventions, and future research.

Conclusion: Contested Meanings of Parenthood: ‘As Real as It Gets’

Drawing together the conclusions of this study of adoptive parenthood and open adoption, MacDonald discusses how the meaning and status of adoptive parenthood is contested across various social domains. Culturally, a contest over the relative strength and validity of social versus biological parenthood is notable in adopters’ encounters with microaggressions. Structurally, public adoption from care, especially compulsory adoption, is a contested field of child welfare practice and results in adopters feeling constrained to facilitate birth family contact. On an interpersonal level, adoptions from care are often contested by birth parents, with implications for relationships in the adoptive kinship network. MacDonald identifies contact between adopters and birth relatives as an opportunity for display and recognition of one another’s legitimate kin connection to the child. MacDonald concludes with suggestions for research and empowering practice in open adoption.

Paramountcy, family rights and contested adoption: does contact with birth relatives balance the scales?

ABSTRACT This article combines practitioner insight and research evidence to chart how principles of partnership and paramountcy have led to birth family contact becoming the expected norm following contested adoption from care in Northern Ireland. The article highlights how practice has adapted to the delay in proposed reforms to adoption legislation resulting in the evolution of increasingly open adoption practices. Adoption represents an irrevocable transfer of parental responsibility from birth to adoptive parents and achieves permanence and legal security for children in care who cannot return to their birth family. Its enduring effect, however, makes public adoption a contentious field of child welfare practice, particularly when contested by birth parents. This article explores how post-adoption contact may be viewed as reconciling the uneasy interface between paramountcy principles and parental rights to respect for family life. The article highlights the complexity of adoptive kinship relationships following contested adoption from care, and how contact presents unique challenges that mitigate against meaningful and sustainable connections between the child and their birth relatives. In conclusion, a call is made for sensitive negotiation and support of contact arrangements, and the development of practice models that are informed by an understanding of the workings of adoptive kinship.