Family Rights Group 50th Anniversary Reception in Parliament

Family Rights Group (FRG) recently marked our 50th anniversary with a spectacular reception at the House of Lords, honouring five decades of influencing the child welfare system to support children and families to stay safely together.  

Our supporters, parliamentarians, sector leaders, families and care leavers gathered for an evening of celebration, thoughtful reflection, and anticipation for the future.  

Hosted by Baroness Armstrong, the evening featured an inspiring line-up of speakers, with guests and supporters including musician Fred Again, Olympic medallist and campaigner Fatima Whitbread MBE, and broadcaster Ashley John-Baptiste.  

Secretary of State for Education

Bridget Phillipson MP took to the stage to celebrate Family Rights Group’s role in championing family group conferences, describing them as ‘solutions for children designed with the people who know them and love them.’ She praised our work in creating Lifelong Links, ensuring that all children can maintain positive and lasting relationships throughout their lives. Here is a snippet:

“Solutions for children – designed with the people who know and love them”

At our anniversary reception last week, Secretary of State for Education @bphillipsonMP celebrated our innovative work to support children to remain safely in, & stay connected with, their families#FRG50 pic.twitter.com/DzzSIMYBcG

— Family Rights Group (@FamilyRightsGp) November 4, 2024

Speaking on Budget Day, she highlighted the £44 million allocated by Government to support kinship and foster carers, including a kinship allowance that will be piloted across 10 local authorities. She shared that she had agreed with the Chancellor to take further action in the next Spending Review, with plans to reform children’s social care and address the challenges within the care market. The forthcoming Children’s Wellbeing Bill, she emphasised, would help make this vision a reality. 

Our Act for Kinship Care campaign is calling on Government to include key steps to improve recognition and support for kinship families in that Bill.

President of the Family Division

Sir Andrew MacFarlane, head of family justice, lauded Family Rights Group’s transformative impact on the family justice system, contrasting the vastly different landscape faced by children and families at the time of our inception. He emphasised FRG’s leadership in the pivotal Care Crisis Review and commended the exceptional expertise of our legal team, both past and present, whose tireless work has driven profound and lasting change for children and families over the years. 

All Party Parliamentary Group on Kinship Care 

MP Melanie Onn, Chair of the APPG on Kinship Care – who was herself raised in kinship care – commended Family Rights Group on our essential role as Secretariat to the group, helping secure recognition and support for kinship carers throughout Whitehall and Parliament.  

Education Select Committee

Helen Hayes, Chair of the Education Select Committee, endorsed the importance of recognition and support for kinship care and for enshrining protections in law and policy alongside strengthened efforts to reunify children with their families. 

Champions for kinship care

Kinship carer and Kinship Care Alliance Co-Chair Shanayd Warren highlighted the harsh realities faced by many kinship families, who often struggle without adequate support to thrive. Shanayd emphasised that the Children’s Wellbeing Bill presents a key opportunity to define kinship care in law and create a fairer system for of support. Speaking about the challenges and obstacles she faced in the workplace when she took on the care of her niece, she brought attention to the urgent need for statutory paid leave for kinship carers, along with comprehensive therapeutic support for children in kinship care. 

Premiere of our special anniversary film

Guests were treated to a premiere showing of Family Rights Group’s special anniversary film, featuring some of the many people who have worked closest with the charity describing the significance of our work in their own words.  

Parents and birth families

In the second part of the evening, Family Rights Group’s Chair of Trustees Angela Frazer-Wicks, a founding member of our parents’ panel and recent MBE recipient for her services to children and families, shared a heartfelt story about her experience with children’s services, the adoption of her eldest two children which left her feeling abandoned and broken, and her recent reunion with her eldest son. She emphasised the crucial need for children and families to have a central voice in the child welfare system and praised FRG’s leadership in championing this throughout its work and beyond.  

Building not breaking relationships

The occasion was brought to a memorable close by Salma Begum, who shared how her life in care had been transformed by our Lifelong Links approach. Family Rights Group’s Build Not Break campaign is calling on Government to extend to all children in care and care leavers by 2027. Salma recounted her remarkable journey to Bangladesh to meet her mother after years of being separated and how Lifelong Links had enabled her to reconnect with her culture, her family, strengthening her sense of identity, purpose and confidence. 

Our work is needed more than ever 

Our Chief Executive Cathy Ashley reflected Family Rights Group’s half a century of profound achievements, whilst acknowledging the urgent action needed to address the record numbers of children in care. With families increasingly struggling to access early help, our work is crucial now more than ever. She emphasised that with commitment and investment from central and local government, real change to support more children remain safely with their families is possible.