During intake, it is essential that social workers complete a thorough assessment of sibling groups as a whole as well of each individual child, including children and youth in all discussions.  Social workers talk individually with each child, asking age-appropriate questions and learning about that child’s experiences and feelings.  In completing assessments, it is important to recognize that sibling relationships vary greatly in both positive and negative qualities. Assessment should be viewed as an ongoing process and not be limited only to intake.  In evaluating the quality of sibling relationships, the social worker assesses:

• Warmth and affection or alternatively hostility between siblings
• Interdependence
• The relative power and status in the relationship
• How much time the siblings have spent together (have never lived together, have lived together at some point in their lives, have always lived together)

In conducting the assessment, it is important that individualized and sibling group assessments – and not myths about sibling placements -- guide the decision making process. 

Casey Family Programs has identified the following myths and realities about sibling placements:

Myth #1: The “parentified child” should be separated from younger siblings in order to give him/her a chance to be a child.

Informed practice tells us that separating a child from younger siblings is detrimental to the younger ones who now must face placement in an unfamiliar home without parents and the older sibling who could be a source of comfort and support. It can also be a negative experience for an older child who feels responsible for the care of siblings and may suffer great anxiety about their fate.  When older and younger siblings are placed together with a family who understands sibling dynamics, their fears can be allayed and they may be able to gradually develop a more “normal” relationship under the guidance of adults.

Myth #2: Brothers and sisters should be separated to prevent sibling rivalry.

Sibling rivalry is a fact of life in all families. It may even be possible that such squabble provide children with opportunities to learn how to deal with other forms of conflict.  Separating siblings to prevent sibling rivalry increases the trauma of removal and denies children the opportunity to learn how to resolve differences in a safe and supportive environment.

Myth #3: A child with special needs should be placed separately from siblings to receive more focused attention.

Children with special needs have the same needs of all children—to be loved, to belong, to feel safe.   It is families who satisfy these needs, and brothers and sisters are part of families. In addition, placing a child with special needs along makes the child the sole focus of the foster family’s attention, distorting the child’s sense of place in the family and possibly overwhelming her or him.  Living in a family as just one member of a sibling group – as the child did in the family of origin – allows him or her to maintain normal relationships with brothers and sisters and with new adults in the family.  A better solution is to recruit, prepare and support foster families who are able to effectively care for children with special needs and their sibling.

Adoption and Permanency Taskforce. (2004).  Permanence Planning: Notes for Practitioners.  Assessing Sibling Groups.  This resource provides questions to ask and issues to consider in assessing sibling groups.

Peterborough Safeguarding Children Board.  Assessing Children’s Relationships in Family Placements.   This resource provides a basic tool for studying the way siblings behave toward each other and through this, coming to a better understanding of their relationship.  It is not primarily a means of deciding whether siblings should be placed together, and though it should form one part of the evidence gathered for such a decision, it should not be used as the only basis for that decision.

Sibling Relationship Inventory.  Developed by Stocker and McHale, this inventory measures the dimensions of sibling affection, hostility and rivalry. 

Sibling Inventory of Behaviors.  The paper begins with a brief overview of the literature describing the various dimensions of sibling relationship quality and the research supporting the link between positive indicators of sibling relationship quality and children’s developmental outcomes, most notably, their social competence with peers and their psychological adjustment. Further, it examines the various means of measuring sibling relationship quality and summarize some of these measurement approaches before focusing specifically on the history and development of the Sibling Inventory of Behavior (SIB: Schaefer & Edgerton, 1981).

Shropshire Council.  Placing sibling groups. This resource provides a profile that social workers can use in assessing sibling groups.

Social Interactions Between Siblings (SIBS) Interview. This scale is designed to examine sibling influences on antisocial behavior. 

University of Maryland.  Assessment Measures: Impact on Sibling Relationship.  This resource provides information on the Sibling Relationship Questionnaire. 

New York State’s policy states that an assessment or consultation with other professional staff such as a licensed psychologist, psychiatrist, other physician, or certified social worker is required to determine that the placement of siblings together would be contrary to the health, safety, or welfare of one or more of the children.  Factors to be considered include age, health and developmental differences, emotional relationship, individual services needs, attachment of individual siblings to separate families/locations, and continuity of environmental standards.

Washington State requires that the social worker conduct and document a social study whenever a child is placed in out-of-home care under the supervision of the department. The study must be conducted prior to placement, or, if it is not feasible to conduct the study prior to placement due to case  circumstances, the study must be conducted as soon as possible following placement. The social study includes an assessment of a number of factors, including reasonable efforts to place siblings in the same foster home, relative caregiver, other suitable person or adoptive home and the reasons why siblings are unable to be placed together, including if placement is contrary to the safety and well-being of any of the siblings.

Jordan Institute for Families.  (1997). Why Separate Siblings?  This resource discusses factors to consider in assessing sibling groups.   http://www.practicenotes.org/vol2_no4/why_separate_siblings.htm