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APPG welcomes plans for kinship care strategy but urges Government to be bold

Published: 2nd February 2023

2 minute read

A statement from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Kinship Care in response to the Government’s strategy for children’s social care reform:

“Kinship care has been overlooked and undervalued for too long. Too many children are deprived of the opportunity to live safely with wider family and friends. Many kinship carers, including grandparents, are left to struggle without the support they and their children need.

The Government’s strategy represents an important step change, for kinship care to be recognised as central to reforming children’s social care and ensuring the best outcomes for children and families.

We look forward to contributing to developing the first national strategy on kinship care to ensure it matches the scale of change needed. Devising a written definition of kinship care is a positive first step to improve recognition of kinship care, especially for informal arrangements. The £9 million investment in training and support is also welcome.

However, for these reforms to make a meaningful difference to families now and ensure more children do not go into the care system unnecessarily, this must be a cross-Government priority including for the Treasury. Our group’s legal aid inquiry highlighted the crucial need for better legal aid and advice service provision and more commitment is needed there. The MacAlister Review also made recommendations on employment leave reform which we are keen to support BEIS to consider. Ultimately, children remaining safely in their family must be the first priority in every part of the country, not just the 12 pathfinders.

The system is in crisis. Costs are skyrocketing. Society’s most vulnerable children and families are being let down. We can and must do better for them.”

For more information, please contact Jordan Hall, Public Affairs Manager, Family Rights Group: jhall@frg.org.uk

Family Rights Group provides the secretariat to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Kinship Care

About the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Kinship Care

The APPG on Kinship Care is a cross party group of MPs and Peers who share a common interest in championing kinship care and improving support for kinship carers. The APPG seeks to raise awareness of kinship care and to promote policy and practice which supports more children to live safely within their family and friends network, when they cannot live with their parents.

See also: 2022 Legal Aid Inquiry

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