What do we still need to know about kinship care in PEI?
Better policy needs better information, but research should not create another burden for families. These are the questions that would most improve PEI service design and future reporting.
Part of our Research & Impact resource series. See the main Research & Impact guide for the wider topic and related resources.
Information reviewed September 2026. Laws, policies and service processes can change, so use the linked official source when a current rule matters.
PEI needs a clearer picture of kinship care than any one program can provide.
Administrative systems count different things. GACP records children in a specific Child Protection-linked program. Courts record legal proceedings. Census data captures household structure at one point in time. Informal kinship families may appear in none of those systems.
Seven questions would materially improve PEI policy and service design.
1. How many children are living in kinship care?
Separate informal care, GACP temporary placements, permanent kinship arrangements, guardianship, adoption and other relevant pathways.
2. Who are the caregivers?
Age, relationship to the child, region, household composition, employment and whether more than one child is being raised.
3. What changed financially?
Housing, food, transportation, child care, school costs, employment reduction and delays before benefits or support begin.
4. What support does the child need?
Health, disability, mental health, school, trauma, sibling contact, cultural connection and transition to adulthood.
5. Where do families get stuck?
Legal authority, program eligibility, documentation, referral loops, rural access, transportation and services that assume the caregiver is a parent.
6. What helps placements remain stable?
Peer support, respite, financial help, navigation, family connection, professional coordination and caregiver health.
7. What happens over time?
Reunification, permanent kinship care, guardianship, adoption, placement changes and the child's transition into adulthood.
Build on the evidence PEI already has.
The UPEI-led qualitative study involving 12 rural PEI grandparents documented important lived experience and service-navigation issues. Statistics Canada provides national household data, while Building GRAND-Families has program and evaluation information from camps, support activities and funded projects.
Do not create a new data burden for caregivers just because data is useful.
Collect the minimum information required for the question being studied. Explain how the information will be used, protect privacy, separate service access from research participation and avoid repeatedly asking families to disclose traumatic history.
Navigator data can reveal service gaps without becoming a shadow child-welfare file.
Anonymous themes such as "caregiver could not determine who could sign school forms," "three referrals before reaching housing help" or "benefit delay created financial pressure" can be valuable system evidence. Detailed case histories, court documents and medical records are usually unnecessary for that purpose.
A future State of Grandfamilies in PEI report should wait for enough defensible data.
Building GRAND-Families can eventually publish a recurring provincial report, but it should distinguish verified population data, program data, caregiver survey results and qualitative lived experience. Where PEI does not have a reliable number, say so rather than filling the gap with an estimate.
Suggested first measurement set for Building GRAND-Families navigation.
- Reason for contact.
- Region of PEI.
- Whether Child Protection or GACP is involved, when the caregiver chooses to say.
- First referral made.
- Number of handoffs before connection.
- Whether the caregiver reached the service.
- Whether another unmet need emerged.
- Caregiver-reported usefulness.
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