Department for Education officials see impact of specialist advice for families

Family Rights Group was delighted to welcome guests from the Alternatives to Care and Kinship team at the Department for Education this week. Civil servants met staff and saw first-hand our work to keep children safely within their families.

The child welfare sector awaits the Government’s response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care expected later this month. This week we had the opportunity to highlight the importance of early, specialist advice for parents and kinship carers, and the need for more practical, financial and emotional support, underpinned by a clear legal definition of kinship care, for kinship families who are too often overlooked and undervalued.

We were also pleased to highlight the findings of our recent evaluation of our free telephone advice line. We are particularly proud of the fact that the service not only delivers much needed specialist information and guidance to families involved with children’s services, but also results in significant savings for the state due to averted care costs.

Our expert advisers – with social work and family law experience – discussed with the DfE team, the challenges faced by the families who call the line and provided an insight into the importance of the support advisers give.

We look forward to continuing to work with Government to deliver life-changing support and pursue crucial system reform, to help children to live safely and thrive in their family and community.