ABSTRACT
When children are unable to live with their birth parents it is typically their extended family, rather than the state, which steps in to take care of them, an arrangement commonly known as kinship care. Grandparents tend to form the largest single group of such carers. This paper provides an overview of what is known about these arrangements in the UK, examining their prevalence, the profile of carers and children, the outcomes for children and the impact on carers. Since UK research does not usually focus on grandparents as a distinct group of kinship carers, it will draw on both the generic UK literature on kinship care and the more extensive international research on grandparents bringing up grandchildren.
