My research focusses on kinship care, or family and friends care, in the United Kingdom with a particular focus on South Wales. As a placement option, kinship care has grown rapidly over the past 20 years with more than 170,000 children and young people currently thought to be living in such arrangements in the UK (Nandy, Selwyn, Farmer & Vaisey, 2011). The project is applied research working in close collaboration with the City and County of Swansea and Carmarthenshire County Council to examine the relative wellbeing and outcomes of children and young people in kinship care in South Wales, and strategies to maximise placement success.