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.
Act For Kinship Care
Kinship carers are grandparents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, other relatives or friends, who step in to raise children who cannot live at home. We are calling on the UK Government to improve recognition and support for kinship families, starting with new legislation.
When children cannot lived with parents, kinship care is often the next best option. It means children can remain safely in their family, with people who know and love them, instead of living with strangers in the care system.
There are more than 153,000 children across England raised in kinship care. Research shows it leads to better outcomes for children compared to the care system. This includes for their physical and mental wellbeing, stability in their living arrangements, achievements in school and higher levels of employment in later life.
Yet too often kinship care is undervalued and under supported. Opportunities to explore how a child’s family and friends can help are missed or come late in the day when the situation has reached crisis point.
The support available to children and their kinship carers is often dependent on the type of arrangement, where they live, and whether the child has been, or is, looked-after in the care system.
With record numbers of children in the care system, more could be living safely and thriving in kinship care with the right support.
We want to build a child welfare system which values and supports kinship care when children cannot remain at home. That starts with four transformative measures in law:
- A statutory definition of kinship care. To improve recognition and understanding of kinship care in all its forms and establish the foundation for an effective support system. Read more
- A duty on local authorities to develop and publish a local offer for kinship families, setting out the support they offer. Read more
- A legal right for families to be offered a family group conference before social workers consider going to court to remove their children. To allow families to take a lead in finding safe solutions, including identifying potential kinship carers.
- A right to paid employment leave, akin to adoption leave, to support carers to remain in work while giving us time to settle the children in. Read more
A Call to Action
The Children’s Wellbeing Bill and Employment Rights legislation are expected to be published in Autumn 2024. Family Rights Group is inviting politicians, families and the sector to join this call to ensure this opportunity is not missed.
Write to your MP – use our easy tool to ask your local Member of Parliament to lobby the Government to put kinship care in legislation. Take action now
If you are an MP, join the APPG on Kinship Care, ask a question in Parliament, submit a written question, or write to the Secretary of State. Contact our public affairs team for briefings and support.
Our funding means we can currently only help 4 in 10 people
Your donation will help more families access expert legal advice and support from Family Rights Group.
Donate Now