Often it starts with a phone call. A grandchild, a niece or a nephew needs somewhere to live tonight, and you say yes before you know what comes next. Within days the school wants proof that you can enrol the child, the doctor wants a parent's signature, and the shopping, the clothes and the childcare are coming out of a budget that was never meant to stretch this far.
Nobody hands relatives the order of things. Which consent form will the school and the doctor accept? What money is the child entitled to in their own right, and which office pays it? When does an informal arrangement stop being enough, and what does a guardianship, custody or special guardianship application involve? Every state, nation and province answers these questions differently, and the official pages describe each step on its own.
Each of our guides takes one place and one job (authority to act for the child at school and with doctors, the money and benefits for the child, or the court process for a longer-term order) and walks through it in plain language, in the order you will meet it, with checklists and the questions to ask. Every guide is independent and is not connected with any court, government department or agency. We explain the forms, the programmes and the steps; we do not give legal advice, and each guide points to the free help that exists, from kinship navigator programmes and legal aid to kinship carer charities.