The SEND crisis and children in kinship care

How the SEND crisis is affecting children in kinship care

Key insights from the APPG on Kinship Care spotlight session on special educational needs and disabilities

Children in kinship care, raised by relatives or friends, are more likely to have special educational needs and disabilities. Kinship families face significant hurdles in accessing support.

Too many families with children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), struggle to access the help they need. Many reports and testimonials from parents and carers have now highlighted the shortcomings of the current system, which is not improving outcomes for children while placing ever increasing financial pressures on schools and local authorities.

For children in kinship care and their carers, there are unique SEND related challenges and common difficulties can be amplified.

This month, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Kinship Care held the first of two spotlight sessions, hearing from kinship families raising children with special educational needs and disabilities. Family Rights Group coordinated the session, as secretariat to the Group.

Here we explore some of the key messages from kinship families navigating the SEND support system.

Lack of awareness and information sharing

Kinship carers frequently find themselves unaware of the children’s special educational needs, or the full extent of them, when they first take them in. Health and education information and assessments are often not shared. This lack of initial information complicates the carers’ ability to make informed decisions about the child’s needs. It can delay access to necessary support and lead to repeated assessments.

Recognition and support from public agencies

Kinship carers struggle to be recognised by public agencies and services. There is a general lack of understanding about kinship care, which complicates interactions with schools and other services. The legal status of kinship arrangements is not always well understood and not all kinship carers have parental responsibility. Schools often do not understand the unique circumstances of kinship care and the different ways such arrangements have come about. This leads to challenges in how they work with these families.

Access to therapeutic support

Many kinship carers report difficulties in accessing therapeutic support. This can be crucial for children who have experienced trauma to effectively engage with education. The Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund is limited to certain kinship children, excluding many from receiving necessary support. Recent changes to the Fund criteria have made this even harder.

Kinship carers speaking to MPs and Peers also described a lack of information and training on parenting and specifically therapeutic parenting for children who have experienced trauma. Not all kinship carers have previous parenting experience prior to taking on the kinship children. One recommendation raised by a kinship carer was the importance of Family Hubs having knowledge of kinship care, and the parenting support services kinship carers and the children might need.

Compounding challenges

Many kinship carers are older and may have their own health concerns, which brings its own challenges. Carers describe feeling alone and unsupported and in a constant battle both in their journey to becoming a kinship carer and then securing the support the children need. When children are unable to access the support they need, this can escalate behavioural problems including violent behaviour, which are difficult for carers to handle. They also described how this can further isolate themselves and the children from friends of their own age.

Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs)

There has been a lot of discussion and speculation around the future of EHCPs – a legally binding document setting out the support to be provided.

The kinship carers giving evidence to the APPG had mixed experiences. One had an EHCP but there was no school willing or capable of implementing it. Another described how key the EHCP had been in securing the special school their child needed. She described the relief of finally watching her grandson go to school with a smile on his face. A third kinship carer was told the child needed an EHCP to guarantee the support their child needs.

All the carers speaking felt EHCPs have become a necessity to secure help, and were concerned about the impact of any attempt to row back on legal entitlements.

Next steps

The evidence presented by kinship carers underscores the urgent need for better recognition, support, and understanding of kinship care within the education and health systems. Family Rights Group is working with the APPG to ensure the needs of kinship families are considered as the Government develops and prepares to publish its proposed reforms to the SEND system.

In September, a second APPG spotlight session will hear from organisations working with kinship families with special educational needs and disabilities. Keep an eye on the Group’s X and BlueSky channels for more details.

Jordan Hall, Head of Public Affairs, Family Rights Group

July 2025