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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

 

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Our response to Budget 2024

Published: 30th October 2024

3 minute read

Today Chancellor Rachel Reeves MP delivered her first Budget.

Announcements included:

  • £250 million in 2025-26 to continue to test innovative measures to support children and reduce costs for local authorities. The government will set out plans for fundamental reform of the children’s social care system in Phase 2 of the Spending Review, including promoting early intervention to help children stay with their families where possible, and fixing the broken care market.
  • That funding allocation includes £44 million of new funding to pilot a Kinship Allowance as well as to create hundreds of new foster placements, enabling more children to stay in family environments.
  • £1.3 billion of new grant funding for local authorities including at least £600 million new grant funding for social care
  • A £1 billion uplift for SEND and alternative provision funding as an important step in realising the government’s ambition to reform the system
  • The Carer’s Allowance weekly earnings limit will be raised to improve financial security for carers to support them into work or to work more hours if they choose.
  • Extending the Household Support Fund and Discretionary Housing Payments in 2025-26

Cathy Ashley, Chief Executive of Family Rights Group said:

“The Government’s first Budget today sets out to renew Britain and rebuild public services which are under huge strain. We see the realities of that strain in the number of families struggling to get help early before a crisis develops, in the desperate calls to Family Rights Group advice line, and in the record number of children in the care system.

“The fundamental building blocks of our society are the strengths of family. We can’t rebuild Britain without investing in families and the support services they need to navigate challenges in life. That includes tackling poverty and homelessness and the impact of living with mental ill-health and with disabilities.

“Neither can we deliver opportunity for every child, when too many children are in the care system, deprived of the opportunity to safely live within their family and maintain relationships with those who love and care about them. For those who are raised by relatives and friends in kinship care, too many kinship families are left with little or no support.

“We welcome the priority the Government has given to investing in kinship care alongside foster care and in recently adopting our proposal for a new local offer for kinship families. Reforms to carers allowance, £1 billion for special educational needs and disabilities provision and an immediate funding boost for social care are important steps forward too. The spending review and the upcoming Children’s Wellbeing Bill must now prioritise the wider reforms the child welfare system urgently needs.

“Children and parents need support when challenges are emerging. Family and friends should be given the opportunity to find solutions with a right to a family group conference safely averting children going into care. Kinship care needs to be defined in law alongside the practical, emotional and financial support kinship families need. And no child in care or care leaver should be left isolated and alone, with the offer of Lifelong Links to build those loving relationships we all need.

“We have the solutions to transform the child welfare system and support more children to remain safely in their family. With the will and the investment we can make it happen.”

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