APPG warns special educational needs reforms cannot leave children behind

Key findings

The report finds that kinship families face a ‘double challenge’: securing recognition and support for the kinship arrangement itself, while simultaneously navigating a SEND system widely acknowledged to be in crisis. Among its central findings:

• Systems not designed for kinship families: Many kinship carers step in at short notice and times of crisis, often without essential information about a child’s needs. They must then navigate the children’s social care and SEND systems alongside other significant challenges, with little tailored support.
• Low awareness of kinship care and trauma in schools: Understanding of kinship arrangements and the impact of trauma on learning and behaviour is highly variable across schools and services. Some carers report the expression of children’s trauma being seen through the lens of bad behaviour and so treated punitively. There is a risk of children being misunderstood or overlooked in the government’s proposed new tiers of SEND provision.
• Inconsistent and inequitable entitlements: Eligibility for educational supports — including Pupil Premium Plus, priority school admissions and designated teacher support — varies depending on a child’s route into kinship care, creating an inequitable patchwork for children with similar levels of need.
• Delayed and difficult-to-access therapeutic support: Delays in securing specialist therapeutic support, including through the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund, increase pressure on kinship arrangements and risk them breaking down.
• Financial inequity for disabled households: Where families rely on special guardianship allowances, inconsistent local policies and means-testing can leave disabled households worse off, in some cases effectively forcing families to use disability-related benefits to cover basic living costs.
• Black kinship families disproportionately affected: Systemic inequalities, misdiagnosis and racial bias continue to affect children from Black and minority communities in kinship care, requiring culturally inclusive assessment and training across education and related services.
• Support cliff edges at 16 and 18: Kinship families report steep and damaging declines in support as young people leave compulsory education, compounding existing difficulties.

Key recommendations

The APPG calls on the Government to:

• Improve recognition of kinship care through updates to ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ statutory guidance for schools and awareness raising with frontline services including Family Hubs.
• Ensure all staff in early years, schools and post-16 provision receive training on the impact of trauma, loss and disruption, and the specific experiences of kinship children — including as part of the new national SEND training programme.
• Engage kinship families in the development of the proposed National Inclusion Standards and local inclusion strategies.
• Update the SEND Code of Practice to include the same expectation of timely needs assessments for kinship children as for looked after children.
• Fix the patchwork of educational entitlements so that all kinship children who need priority admissions, a designated teacher, Virtual School Head support and Pupil Premium Plus receive them.
• Ensure local authorities align their Kinship Local Offer with a strong SEND Local Offer to provide kinship families with the tailored information they need to advocate for SEND support their child needs. This should include details about how to access independent, specialist advice and information.
• Ensure any reforms to the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund are built on a thorough analysis of the therapeutic needs of kinship families, covering all forms of kinship arrangement.
• Introduce principles in kinship care statutory guidance to ensure fairness and transparency in how special guardianship allowances are calculated, including for households in receipt of disability benefits.
• Fund and encourage the development of peer support groups and mentoring for children and young people in kinship care.

Melanie Onn MP, Chair of the APPG on Kinship Care:

“The evidence gathered by our APPG is striking. Children in kinship care are frustrated at not feeling heard in schools. Carers forced to explain their family circumstances at every door they knock on; flying blind, as one carer put it, through complex systems without the information they need to advocate for the children.

Our clearest finding is how poorly understood kinship care and the trauma that so often accompanies it remains across the education system. Many children arrive in their carer’s home having experienced loss, separation and disruption. While we heard examples of excellent, inclusive practice, schools and frontline services are too often not equipped to respond.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 marks real, hard-won progress — defining kinship care in law for the first time and placing a new duty on local authorities to set out the support available to kinship families. But we cannot stop there. The SEND reforms will only succeed in improving inclusion if kinship care is properly reflected in the system. We cannot afford to design yet another system that leaves these children behind.”

Joe Robertson MP, APPG Vice Chair, said:

“Relatives and friends who have stepped in to raise children within their family do a brilliant job but in doing so they often face pressures they never anticipated.

“Like many families raising children with special educational needs and disabilities, securing the specialist support the children need is very often a battle. As kinship carers thrust into the role at a moment’s notice, it can be an even steeper learning curve.

“Kinship families have told our APPG about their worries that the proposed reforms could make it harder to secure specialist support if mainstream education does not meet their child’s needs. Families must be able to progress to the specialist tier if they need to and be able to access the advice they need to hold the system to account.”

Munira Wilson MP, Vice Chair, said:

“Too many children with special educational needs are not getting the help they need in school early enough. That can be especially challenging for kinship families. Carers often step up in a crisis with little preparation or the information they need. The children have often experienced loss and trauma which can have long term consequences.

“Delays in access to timely therapeutic support can put particular strain on kinship families and have a big impact on their experience in school. The Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund is one of few routes to this support but access is extremely limited and its long term future is uncertain. An inclusive SEND system must go hand in hand with ensuring all children in kinship care can access therapeutic support if they need it.”

Baroness Armstrong, Vice Chair, said:

“Many more young people raised in kinship care are now teenagers. Our APPG has heard a growing concern among kinship families raising older children about the cliff edge in support after 16.

“Families continue to face pressures and can’t be expected to pick up the slack and continue to support young people into early adulthood without help.

“The Government has placed a welcome focus on post 16 educational and skills including in relation to special educational needs. We are keen to see that this reflects the lived realities of kinship care and that young people in kinship care and their families are involved in what this reform looks like.”

Jordan Hall, Head of Public Affairs, Family Rights Group

“Kinship care ensures children can stay safely with family and friends, often avoiding the need to enter the care system altogether. But families face a battle for recognition and practical, emotional, educational and financial support. For kinship families raising children with special educational needs and disabilities, those difficulties can be even more acute.

“Our school system cannot properly support children they do not understand. Without that understanding, children who need targeted support are at risk of slipping through the gaps. Timely access to therapeutic support is not a luxury but essential for some children and kinship arrangements to thrive, and delays in access are putting families under unsustainable pressure. There is also an unequal patchwork of entitlements in schools which should not be a lottery based on how they came to be in kinship care.

“Family Rights Group has worked with the APPG to bring the experiences of kinship families into the debate on how to fix the SEND crisis. The Government must ensure their voices inform the new system being built.”