Kinship care of 10 year old?

[Mooey89]

Hello
My exH’s sister has had her child removed. SIL assaulted her. It’s all so awful. SIL has mental health problems and lives up north with all family down in the south of the Uk.
I am no longer with her brother due to DV. Niece doesn’t see her father and hasn’t for 6 years.

SIL has asked if I would consider taking niece. I love her so much. My son is her cousin. I would take her in a heartbeat but I don’t even know if it would be feasible. I know DN will be traumatised and it would be awful for her to relocate to a whole different country (they live in Scotland) but would at least be able to stay with family.
What is the process? Is this even a realistic prospect? I’m anxious about having further links to that family but I don’t want to DN to be with strangers.

what a very difficult situation for you.
Its going to be difficult for your neice whatever happens. The support of your SIL is important.
At 10 what your neice wants will also be taken into account.
All you can do at this point is ask social services and see what they say.

good luck

I think it is a lovely idea in theory, in the past it wasn't uncommon for children to stay within their birth family if possible. Plenty have been brought up by aunts and uncles, even grandparents.

Poor little girl has been through so much, it might not be straightforward. You can only ask and try.

It very much depends, the aim will be for your niece to be returned to her mum if that’s possible, the vast majority of children do return home. Do you know how she’s been removed - eg if it was a Child Protection Order sw will need to apply for a supervision order quickly because CPOs are an emergency measure, or your sister wouid need to agree to her being placed somewhere else on a voluntary basis.

If it’s just happened, it’s worth waiting to see how the child protection investigation proceeds, because she may be returned.

I meant to say, if the removal was going to be permanent then you might be able to request she is placed with you, but I can’t see sw agreeing to a temporary placement at such a distance, not least because your niece has a right to continued contact with her mum which would be hard.