Professional practice

Understanding grandfamilies in Prince Edward Island.

A practical starting point for professionals who work with a child, caregiver or family and want to understand how kinship care changes the service experience.

Multigenerational family together at home

Part of our For Professionals resource series. See the main For Professionals guide for the wider topic and related resources.

Professional resource reviewed September 2026. PEI laws, programs and service processes can change, so use the linked official source when a current rule matters.

What is a grandfamily or kinship family?

A grandfamily is commonly a family in which a grandparent is raising a grandchild. Kinship care is broader and can include grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, adult siblings, cousins, family friends and other trusted adults caring for a child whose parent cannot currently provide the care the child needs.

Do not assume every kinship family is part of Child Protection.

Some PEI children live with relatives through informal private arrangements. Others are involved with Child Protection, GACP, guardianship, court orders or relative adoption. The practical caregiver and the legal decision-maker may not always be the same person.

Why children enter kinship care.

Family circumstances can include parental illness, addiction, death, incarceration, family violence, child-protection concerns, housing instability or other crises. Professionals should ask only for the information needed to provide the service rather than requiring the child or caregiver to retell traumatic history repeatedly.

Five issues appear across systems.

Recognition

Forms and policies often assume every child lives with a parent.

Authority

The caregiver may manage daily life while legal decision-making remains unclear or divided.

Money

A new child can create immediate costs before benefits or formal support are in place.

Trauma and loss

Children may be grieving parents, siblings, school, home and routines even when the new placement is safe.

Caregiver capacity

Grandparents may be balancing aging, health, employment and a return to active parenting.

Service navigation

Families can be dealing with school, health, CRA, courts, Child Protection and community programs at once.

What should a professional ask?

Who provides the child's day-to-day care?
What authority or documentation is needed for this specific service?
Who may receive information?
What would make this process easier to use?
Is transportation, cost, disability or language creating a barrier?
Is there another professional or system already involved that we can coordinate with, with appropriate consent?

What should a professional avoid assuming?

That the caregiver is the child's parent.
That a grandparent automatically has guardianship.
That an informal caregiver has no useful role.
That a child who misses a parent wants to leave the caregiver.
That challenging behaviour is deliberate defiance.
That older caregivers understand modern school and health systems because they raised children before.
That a family that owns a home or appears stable is not under financial strain.

PEI GACP is one pathway, not the definition of kinship care.

The Grandparent and Alternative Care Provider Program supports qualifying temporary and permanent arrangements connected to Child Protection. Professionals should not tell a caregiver they are "not a kinship caregiver" simply because GACP does not apply.

Read the PEI GACP guide

Schools, health providers and community services can reduce repeated system stress.

One reliable contact, inclusive forms, clear consent processes and direct referrals can prevent the caregiver from having to retell the same story to multiple people. PEI Student Well-being Teams are one example of a cross-system model that brings social work, nursing, outreach and family support into schools.

PEI Student Well-being Teams

Build with caregivers, not only for them.

Caregivers can identify barriers that are difficult to see from inside a professional system. Building GRAND-Families can help organizations hear that lived experience without requiring individual families to publicly disclose private stories.