ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the contributing factors that fashioned the Act and describes the experiences of several families who are caring for abused and/or neglected kin children. The transitions occurring in kinship care for the children and their families have been affected by the gendered, economic and political environment in New Zealand. In kinship care, judgements of good and bad mothers occur within the extended family itself and this affects family dynamics and relationships. Kinship carers receive substantially less financial support than caregivers of unrelated foster children, especially when other ancillary payments, such as clothing allowances, education costs, medical costs, transport costs, Christmas and birthday present allowances and holiday costs received by stranger foster parents are taken into consideration. Although the kinship care research indicates that children are more likely to sustain contact than in normal foster care, this was not the case for the children in the study.
