Kinship Care in Scotland: What It Is, How It Works, and How It Differs from Adoption

Scotland has made a deliberate policy shift toward keeping children within their wider family networks wherever possible. For families thinking about adoption — particularly those who may also be relatives of a child in care — understanding where kinship care ends and adoption begins is essential.

What Is Kinship Care?

Kinship care in Scotland means a child living with a relative or close friend rather than with their birth parents or in an unrelated foster placement. Kinship carers can be grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, or other adults who have a meaningful pre-existing relationship with the child.

The Scottish Government's "The Promise" — the commitment that emerged from the 2020 Independent Care Review — enshrined the principle that children should remain within their families and communities wherever it is safe to do so. This has accelerated the use of kinship care as a first-choice placement over foster care with strangers.

The numbers reflect this shift: kinship care now accounts for approximately 35% of placements for children who cannot live at home, compared to adoption which accounts for around 1% of all placements.

Legal Frameworks for Kinship Care

There is no single "kinship care order" in Scotland. The legal framework depends on the circumstances:

Private Kinship Care

When a family member steps in informally — perhaps because a parent is struggling — without involvement from the local authority, this is private kinship care. The child is not legally "looked after." The carer has no automatic parental rights and no formal legal status beyond the relationship itself.

Private kinship carers should apply to the Sheriff Court for a Residence Order under Section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, which grants them parental responsibilities and rights. Without this, they cannot enrol the child in school, consent to medical treatment, or access financial support.

Looked After Kinship Care

When the local authority is involved — because the child has been subject to a Compulsory Supervision Order (CSO) via the Children's Hearing System — the placement with a kinship carer is formally assessed and the carer becomes an approved kinship carer under the Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009.

Looked after kinship carers receive:

• A kinship care allowance (rates vary by council)
• Access to support services
• Ongoing involvement from the local authority social work team

The child remains "looked after" by the local authority — a legal status that remains until the CSO ends or a permanent order is granted.

Permanence Order (Kinship)

If the local authority decides the child needs long-term stability with kinship carers, they can apply to the Sheriff Court for a Permanence Order (PO) — the same legal mechanism used on the adoption pathway, but applied here to a kinship placement.

A standard PO (Section 80) secures the child's residence with the kinship carer and gives the carer shared parental rights, without severing the child's legal relationship with the birth parents. Unlike adoption, the child remains "looked after" until they turn 18.

The Key Differences Between Kinship Care and Adoption

How "The Promise" Has Changed Adoption Numbers

The Promise committed Scotland to radical change in how children in care are treated, including the specific commitment that siblings should stay together and that family and community connections should be preserved. Since 2020, this has had a measurable effect on adoption referrals.

More children who might previously have been placed for adoption are now supported into kinship placements. By the time a child is formally cleared for adoption — having had kinship options explored and ruled out — they have often experienced multiple placements, which means more complex attachment histories and greater developmental trauma.

This does not mean adoption in Scotland is less important. It means the children available for adoption tend to have more complex needs than they did a decade ago, and prospective adopters need to enter the system with eyes open to this reality.

When Would a Kinship Carer Choose Adoption?

Occasionally, a kinship carer — a grandparent, aunt, or uncle — decides they want to adopt the child in their care rather than continue under a Permanence Order. This does happen but is relatively uncommon, because:

• Adoption permanently ends the child's legal relationship with the birth parents, which can feel wrong within a family
• Many birth parents, even if unable to care for their child, will consent to kinship care but not to adoption
• A Permanence Order may provide sufficient legal stability without requiring adoption

That said, if a kinship carer does want to adopt, the process is the same as for any other prospective adopter: assessment, panel, and a petition to the Sheriff Court.

Can You Be Both an Adopter and a Kinship Carer?

Some families are approved as adopters through the standard process and also have existing kinship arrangements in their family. This is manageable but requires transparency with your agency from the outset. Agencies will want to understand the dynamics involved and how an additional adoption might affect existing relationships within the household.

For prospective adopters who want to understand the full range of permanence options available in Scotland — including when a Permanence Order might be more appropriate than an Adoption Order for a specific child — the Scotland Adoption Process Guide covers each legal route and what they mean in practice for adoptive families.

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