By phone or email
To speak to an adviser, please call our free and confidential advice line 0808 801 0366 (Monday to Friday 9.30am to 3pm, excluding Bank Holidays). Or you can ask us a question via email using our advice enquiry form.
Are you a parent, kinship carer relative or friend of a child who is involved with, or who needs the help of, children’s services in England? We can help you understand processes and options when social workers or courts are making decisions about your child’s welfare.
Our advice service is free, independent and confidential.
To speak to an adviser, please call our free and confidential advice line 0808 801 0366 (Monday to Friday 9.30am to 3pm, excluding Bank Holidays). Or you can ask us a question via email using our advice enquiry form.
Our online advice forums are an anonymous space where parents and kinship carers (also known as family and friends carers) can get legal and practical advice, build a support network and learn from other people’s experiences.
Our get help and advice section has template letters, advice sheets and resources about legal and social care processes. On Monday and Wednesday afternoons, you can use our webchat service to chat online to an adviser.
Children in kinship care have often experienced tragedy or trauma and have additional needs as a result. Their carers have often stepped up in a moment of crisis. Becoming a kinship carer has a big impact on family life with emotional, practical and financial challenges. Too many children and families cannot access the support they need.
The last major national government guidance on kinship care dates back to the 2011 Family and Friends Care statutory guidance. Family Rights Group was key in influencing its creation. One of its key requirements is that local authorities must publish a local family and friends care policy. This must set out the council’s approach to promoting and supporting the needs of children in kinship care. They must also have a senior member of staff responsible for implementing it, among other obligations.
Today we are publishing our new audit of local authority family and friends care policies across England. It updates a similar exercise we carried out for the Parliamentary Taskforce on Kinship Care in 2019. Our findings are extremely concerning. They show that a majority of local authorities are failing to adhere to the statutory guidance on family and friends care. The vast majority of local policies, where they exist, fall short on multiple criteria.
We have presented Government with proposals for how they could regulate to bring this into effect. This could be done ahead of the general election, without requiring new primary legislation.
“Our findings are extremely concerning. The status quo is failing and families are being treated unfairly as a result. Calls to Family Rights Group’s specialist national advice line regularly reveal poor, inconsistent and unfair practice.
“As part of the national kinship care strategy, the Government has committed to updating the statutory guidance on kinship care. The update is long overdue but unless the guidance is given more teeth, for example via regulations, children and families will not see meaningful change in their area. And that must sit alongside investment in the practical, financial and therapeutic support kinship families need.
“Kinship care is firmly on the political agenda. But children only get one childhood and that time is precious. We must do better by kinship families now.”
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