Family care in the extended family, or kinship care, is a type of family care, or foster care, and is distinguished from this by the fact that one or more foster carers have kinship ties with the fostered child, namely being grandparents, uncles or brothers. .

In Portugal, this measure can be accompanied by psycho-pedagogical and social support and, when necessary, economic assistance. However, these families are not provided with economic and social support, nor the same training and monitoring, which is uniformly provided for all foster families. Trust in a suitable person translates, in turn, into the placement of the child or young person under the custody of a person who, not belonging to their family, has established a relationship of reciprocal affection with them, with the attribution of support of a psycho-pedagogical nature , social and economic, dependent on an individual assessment of each case.

Portugal has one of the highest rates of placing children in residential care in the European context and among countries with a post-industrialized Western model. The latest available data reveal a placement of children in family care of around 3%, a percentage that is comparatively lower compared to the reality in other countries as it does not include children placed with other family members. It is estimated that the fostering of children in families, with or without kinship ties with the fostered child, will reach in Portugal, if we add kinship care to foster care, a rate that will be between 20% and 30%, and that it is essential to determine accurately.

This research has the general objective of characterizing and analyzing childcare situations in the extended family and trustworthy person, in Portugal, from the perspective of the supporting institutions, the fosterers, the parents and the children themselves. An attempt will be made to reflect on the advantages and disadvantages of this measure, and the results it produces, in order to identify changes that allow for the improvement of the implementation of this type of social response, which can trigger results appropriate to the child's well-being and maintenance of family ties.

The research adopts a quantitative and qualitative approach, both in the design of the questionnaires, with quantitative predominance, and in the design of the interview scripts, essentially qualitative.