Kinship carers in England

The government defines kinship care as “any situation in which a child is being raised in the care of a friend or family member who is not their parent.” There are several types of kinship care arrangement and the type of arrangement can affect the support available.

The 2021 Census estimated around 141,000 children were living in kinship care in England and Wales (1.1% of all children).

Issues

Several themes emerge from recent reports on kinship care, including:

• Kinship care does not get the recognition it deserves.
• Children growing up in kinship care do better on average than children in unrelated foster care, but worse than children in the general population. This applies to emotional, behavioural and education outcomes.
• Not enough is done to involve and support a child’s wider family network before they enter local authority care.
• The support provided to kinship carers is not sufficient and there is considerable variation between areas in the support available.

Developments under Conservative government

In February 2023, the Conservative government published an implementation strategy and consultation on children’s social care reform in England, Stable Homes, Built on Love.

Proposals related to kinship care included (but were not limited to):

• Publishing a kinship care strategy by the end of 2023.
• Providing £9 million for a training and support offer for kinship carers.
• Piloting, as part of broader reforms, how to better involve and support the wider family network prior to children entering the care system.

In December 2023 the government published its national kinship care strategy for England. The strategy committed £20 million in 2024/25 to improve the lives of children in kinship care. Its commitments included:

• Providing £16 million to pilot giving a financial allowance to special guardian kinship carers caring for children who were previously looked after by a local authority. The pilots had not been launched by the time of the 2024 general election.
• Publishing guidance for employers on how kinship carers can be supported at work.
• Providing £3.8 million to expand the role of Virtual School Heads to promote the education of children in kinship care.
• Publishing a definition of kinship care.

Developments under Labour government

Since July 2024, the government has made several announcements completing impementation of commitments made by the previous government. This includes, for example, publishing updated statutory guidance on kinship care in October 2024.

In October 2024, the government announced it would provide £40 million to trial a new kinship allowance in up to 10 local authorities. The programme is planned to begin in 2025.

In November 2024, the government published a policy paper on children’s social care reform, Keeping children safe, helping families thrive. This included plans to legislate to:

• Ensure every local authority offer family group decision at the pre-proceedings stage.
• Provide a statutory basis for the expansion of the role of Virtual School Heads to cover children in kinship care (see above).
• Place a statutory duty on local authorities to promote the educational achievement of children in kinship arrangements.

These plans are being taken forward through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which is scheduled to have its Commons Second Reading on 8 January 2025. The bill would also define kinship carers in law.

Social security benefits

The main social security benefits which may be available to kinship carers are Child Benefit, Universal Credit, Child Tax Credit, and Guardian’s Allowance. Further information is provided in section two of the briefing.