Councillors will be asked tonight to back a new strategy to support kinship carers.
Almost a third of the 700 children being looked after by the city council are living with a relative or close friend rather than their parents.
Social workers have felt it best to place them with someone they know, rather than send them to a foster family or put them in residential care.
But the sharp rise in the number of kinship carers up 60% since 2007 means more work is now needed to help them.
A report says: “Dundee City Council has for a number of years been one of the lead authorities in supporting kinship care placements, recognising the benefits to children of having continuity of care in existing family and support networks. This has resulted in Dundee having a consistently high proportion of children living with kinship carers.”
The proportion of looked-after children being accommodated this way is likely to keep on rising, with the Scottish Government encouraging local authorities to allow children to remain in the care of their extended families when it is thought safe and appropriate to do so.
The new strategy sets out how the council will try to assist kinship carers.
“At the consultation event there were very clear views and feelings expressed by carers who confirmed that the task of providing care for a child is frequently challenging,” the report said.
“Those present highlighted the stresses for them associated with managing the child’s behaviour, dealing with family relationships and supporting contact with parents as being very difficult for them at times.”
Most of those questioned supported the idea of having individualised support plans and some said they would welcome better access to therapeutic services for the children to help them to deal with past trauma and loss.
Plans are also being developed to improve the assessment process for carers and help them with advice and support.
The report said: “Kinship carers are often unaware of their financial entitlements and many are dependent on state benefits or have low incomes.
“The additional costs associated with providing care for a child can often have a significant detrimental impact on the carer’s financial situation. It is the responsibility of the local authority to ensure that carers have access to robust financial advice and support to maximise their income.”
The council said: “The social work department believes that kinship carers have a crucial role to play in enabling children to remain within their families by providing stability to them during times of crisis and change, and beyond.”
Councillors will also hear tonight that officers carried out 190 child protection investigations in 2011-12 and 165 children were placed on the child protection register, although their average length of stay on the list fell.
This is reckoned to be because social workers took action more quickly than in the past to sort out problems.
Alan Baird, director of social work, said: “The protection of children and young people from abuse, neglect and harm remains a key priority for all agencies in Dundee and specifically for social work as the lead agency.”
grsmith@thecourier.co.uk