Healthcare Access for Children in Kinship Care: Barriers, Enablers and Place‐Based Solutions in Rural Australia

Kinship care is the most prevalent out‐of‐home care placement type in Australia, yet children in kinship care face significant barriers to healthcare access that remain underexplored, particularly in rural contexts. This qualitative study examines how kinship carers, child‐protection practitioners and project stakeholders understand the barriers to and enablers of healthcare access for children in kinship care in rural Australia. Drawing on Bourke and colleagues’ (2012) conceptual framework for rural health, which integrates rurality, healthcare systems and community dynamics, we analyse data from individual interviews and focus groups conducted during the final year of a 5‐year collaborative, cross‐agency project in Victoria’s northwest. The findings show that geographic isolation, systemic inequalities, professional power dynamics, workforce pressures and colonial social structures each shape healthcare access, with barriers falling most acutely on children with high and complex health needs. Kinship carers, who typically receive less institutional support than foster carers, bear a disproportionate share of the logistical and emotional burden of navigating these barriers. At the same time, the rural locale generates relational strengths that, when harnessed through place‐based governance and genuine cross‐sector collaboration, can enable locally responsive solutions. The study highlights the need for kinship‐care‐specific policy responses and for healthcare systems that are developed in partnership with Aboriginal communities, given the disproportionate representation of Aboriginal children in kinship care. The findings contribute to the evidence base for collaborative, place‐based models of care as a practical pathway towards more equitable healthcare outcomes for children in rural kinship care.