The Outbound Permanence Advice Service at IAC are delighted to launch an IAC booklet, Helping Your Child Move Overseas, written and produced especially for prospective international kinship carers. The booklet is a short, practical guide written for family members living abroad, who are considering permanently caring for a relative’s child. In all cases the children, who currently live in the UK, will be in the care of their local authority due to family circumstances. Kinship care is an increasingly popular way to enable children to remain in the care of their extended family network, but working internationally can pose many challenges, such as the recognition of legal orders abroad, ensuring that assessments are robust and supporting children after they move. In addition to the support needed for all kinship carers, international kinship carers need help and guidance to think carefully about the transition for the child from the UK to their new permanent home in another country. The advice contained in this booklet is especially important as currently there are very few materials available to international kinship carers, leaving a gap for practitioners trying to achieve the best possible outcome for Looked After Children.
The author, Jan Way MBE, wrote this booklet in collaboration with the Outbound Team, whom she managed during their inception. The contents build on IAC’s learning from the charity’s long standing role in adoption practice, particularly with preparing and supporting children with transitions. The booklet is a very accessible tool, useful for both carers and social workers, and covers many of the issues that need to be thought about during the viability stages, assessment process, and especially when planning the move to the child’s new carers.
Our CEO, Satwinder Sandhu, said: “We are so pleased to be able to launch this important booklet and to make the resource available to all of our partner local authorities. Since the Outbound Permanence Advice Service began in 2017 the team has advised on over 200 individual cases and the demand for the service continues to grow. More and more children are being placed abroad with family members and it is vital that we utilise the expertise organisations like IAC has to ensure that both prospective carers and children are prepared and supported to the best of our abilities. We are exceptionally grateful to the Sir Halley Stewart Trust, whose generous donation made the realisation of this booklet possible. We know the guide will be extremely helpful to anyone using it.”
The booklet is available to all subscribing local authorities and partners that IAC works, both in print and digitally. A digital version can be downloaded here.
The Outbound Permanence Advice Service is unique and pioneering way for IAC to support care planning cases involving a move abroad. Out team comprises of social work and legal experts who are available to Local Authority Social Workers and Lawyers. For more information please email outbound@icacentre.org.uk for expert advice about placing looked after children overseas with kinship carers and about how to subscribe.