What are care leaver’s experiences of having their own children during transitions from care? In this guest blog, multidisciplinary researcher and practitioner Jade Purtell highlights three core issues that impact how care leavers with children access and receive support.

Presence is important for holding what wants to unfold in the space within a relationship. These deeper qualities of presence include focused attention, open awareness and kind intention. Children and young people, feel they don’t come into existence until they have a sense of being seen by their caregivers. For young people to grow, their relationships with caregivers are critical for them to feel safe in the world and understand themselves better.

Kinship care, or family care as it is known in some jurisdictions, is when family members or non-family members in a child or family’s social network offer a home and support to a young person who is unable to live with their parents. Kinship care placements have greatly increased across all Australian states and territories and are the fastest growing form of out-of-home care (OOHC) in Australia. In Victoria, between 2017-2021, kinship care grew in Victoria by 33.2 per cent from 5,577 to 7,429 children in OOHC living in kinship care.