Evolving networks of relative care : alliance and exclusion

The chapter traces the processes involved through the decision-making, assessment and post-assessment stages of kinship Care. It examines the ways in which case management practices, derived primarily from an application of a traditional foster care approach, impact on the evolution of the kinship care networks. A process-oriented descriptive account of the evolution of the networks is presented. The multiple perspectives on issues offered by the birth parents, children, relatives and social workers involved was an important feature of this Irish study. A post-Milan systemic framework, drawing principally on the 'fifth province model', is the main theoretical frame used to orientate the study.