“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.”