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Our advice service

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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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.

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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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Black History Month 2024 – it takes a village to raise a child

The theme for Black History Month 2024 is ‘reclaiming narratives’. Our Family Participation Officer, Beverley Campbell, sat down with kinship carers Sharon and Johanna from Families in Harmony, to find out what narrative they would like to change.

Watch the full conversation

Why talk about kinship care in Black History Month 2024?

Kinship care is when a child is being raised in the care of a friend or family member who is not their parent. There are more children in kinship care than there are adopted or in the care system. And we know from census data that children in kinship families are more likely than children living with at least one parent to be from Black, mixed or multiple ethnic communities.

Our kinship panel member, Sharon McPherson has recently returned from a research trip to Jamaica to understand the historical routes of Caribbean family members into kinship care, and what support was put in place for the children who were left behind.

Sharon and Johanna are both kinship carers, and together run Families in Harmony – a lived experienced led organisation, that campaigns for racial justice in kinship care, within the children’s social care sector.

So, Black History Month felt like the perfect time for a chat about reclaiming narratives around Black kinship care.

Reclaiming narratives on Black kinship care

You can watch the full conversation between Beverley, Sharon and Johanna, or read on for a quick run down of what was discussed.

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A different journey for Black kinship carers

Black African heritage kinship carers often have a different journey into kinship care, punctuated with different challenges and obstacles, and this is not always recognised. The different experiences of Black kinship families must be taken into account from assessment to the placing of the child with kinship carers, and include their support needs. Families should have access to advice and advocacy so that they can understand their rights and options.

Raising the voices of Black kinship carers

Sharon and Johanna set up Families in Harmony because they wanted to bring the seldom heard voices of Black kinship carers to the tables of influence and power. They want Black kinship carers to be represented in policy and practice development.

‘It takes a village to raise a child’

For Black History Month 2024 Sharon wanted to reclaim the phrase ‘It takes a village to raise a child’. It has almost become a throw away phrase, which is used widely, and often in relation to kinship care, but not always thought about deeply.

Traditionally, in a village there are networks of families and elders, and you can access different types of wisdom and support. But most of us do not live in that kind of environment anymore. We have to build our own villages and support networks.

Barriers to asking for support

When we are not surrounded by support in a village, we have to ask for it. Johanna wanted to change the narrative on asking for help. She wanted Black kinship carers to feel free and entitled to ask and to be able to receive specialist targeted services that are reflective of the Black kinship carers they serve.

Information is power

It is important to Family Rights Group that all kinship carers know about the information available to them and feel confident to contact our Advice and Advocacy Service. We aim to meet the needs of all kinship carers, whatever their circumstances and heritage. We are all trying to look after children and Family Rights Group wants to help all kinship carers to get the support they are entitled to.

How can we reimagine a village for here and now?

First of all we need to recognise that our village was dismantled and that networks of support are missing. We need to recreate the resources that families benefit from in a traditional village, such as the wisdom of elders. We can do this through peer support, and the perspective of different generations, through organisations like Families in Harmony. And we can get specialist advice from organisations like Family Rights Group.

England was built on Black kinship care

Johanna added that kinship care and the call to the Caribbean to come and help rebuild Britain after the Second World War, is intricately linked. The mass migration from the Caribbean to meet the call of this rebuild, during the Windrush, led to the destruction of many families, leaving behind babies and young children to be cared for by extended family.

Today we see the impact of these broken attachments and fractured families, in the disproportionate numbers of children from Caribbean descent coming into Kinship Care.

Watch the full conversation

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Get information, advice and support on kinship care

From Family Rights Group:

Online advice

Start with our information on the different types of kinship care arrangements, and available support.

Family members, who need free, independent, and confidential advice about issues to do with children’s services, can also contact our advice service:

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.

By web chat

Our webchat service is usually open on Mondays (excluding bank holidays) and Wednesdays from 2pm – 4pm.

From Families in Harmony:

Monthly support groups are a great source of connection for carers, a safe space to share. For many carers this can be the first time meeting someone in the same position as themselves. New support groups are opening all the time, if you would like help in opening a group near you get in touch:

info@familiesinharmony.co.uk

Sharon and Joanna are co-founders and co-directors of Families in Harmony. Sharon is also a member of Family Rights Group kinship panel.

Beverley is Family Rights Group’s family participation officer. She is also an adviser in our Advice and Advocacy Service.

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