Learn how Kinship shapes policy and advocates for change. Through collaboration with families and policymakers, we work to ensure kinship carers’ voices are heard and supported across England and Wales.
Research and reports
We carry out research and share it with decision-makers and others to call for improvements in law, policy and professional practice. See all of our research and reports.
Policy and influencing
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Our latest research and reports
View our most recent research and reports.
Handle With Care
Published ahead of Kinship Care Week 2025, Handle With Care shares key findings from our 2025 annual survey of more than 1,900 kinship carers.
Find out more
Making work pay for kinship carers
Our new research strengthens the case for paid kinship care leave ahead of the government’s review of the parental leave system.
Find out more
Raised by Relatives
This research project looks at the experiences of Black and Asian kinship carers in England. Conducted with Professor Julie Selwyn and Dr Priya Tah from The Rees Centre at Oxford University, and supported by the KPMG Foundation.
Find out moreResearch and reports by year
2025
- Handle With Care: Annual survey of kinship carers 2025
- Making work pay for kinship carers
- Raised by Relatives: The experiences of Black and Asian kinship carers
- Valuing Kinship Care in England
2024
- Make or Break: Annual survey of kinship carers 2024
- Out of Order: The case for boosting financial support for kinship arrangements outside the care system
- Forgotten: support for kinship children’s education and mental health
2023
- Breaking Point: kinship carers in crisis
- Forced Out: delivering equality for kinship carers in the workplace
2022
- Out of the Shadows: a vision for kinship care in England [PDF]
- The Cost of Loving: annual survey of kinship carers 2022 [PDF]
- Kinship Care: financial allowances survey 2022 [PDF]
- Developing Good Practice in Financially Supporting Special Guardians [PDF]
2021
- Kinship Care: state of the nation survey 2021 [PDF]
- Kinship Care: financial allowances survey 2021 [PDF]
- Practicing in Kinship Care: the perspectives of specialist social workers [PDF]
2020
- Kinship Care: the opportunity (the economic case for kinship care) [PDF]
- Kinship Care: state of the nation survey 2020 [PDF]
- Kinship Care COVID-19 Impact Report (May) [PDF]
- Kinship Care COVID-19 Impact Report (July) [PDF]
- Supporting special guardians during the pandemic [PDF]
- The impact of COVID-19 on kinship care [PDF]
2019
2018
2017
- Kinship Care: state of the nation survey 2017 [PDF]
- Growing Up in Kinship Care: experiences as adolescents and outcomes in young adulthood (2017) [PDF]
2016
2014
- Disadvantage, Discrimination, Resilience: the lives of kinship families [PDF]
- Grandparenting in Europe: the health and wellbeing of grandparents caring for grandchildren [PDF]
2013
- Forgotten Children: children growing up in kinship care [PDF]
- Grandparenting in Europe: family policy and grandparents’ role in providing childcare [PDF]
2012
2011
- “Too Old to Care?”: the experiences of older grandparents raising their grandchildren [PDF]
- Doing it All?: grandparents, childcare and employment [PDF]
2010
- Family and Friends Care: “What if we said no?” [PDF)]
- Grandparenting in Europe [PDF]
- Protect, Provide, Support: examining the role of grandparents in families at risk of poverty [PDF]
2009
- Family and Friends Care: recognition, respect, reward [PDF]
- My Second Mum and Dad: the involvement of grandparents in the lives of teenage grandchildren [PDF]
- The Poor Relation?: grandparental care – where older people’s poverty and child poverty meet [PDF]
2007
- Care Matters: transforming the lives of children and young people in care (Grandparents Plus response) (Kinship Care Alliance response) [PDF]
2006
See other related content
Learn about Kinship’s research, informed by the experiences of kinship carers, and see how we use this evidence to call for change in law, policy, and practice.
Read about our campaign, #ValueOurLove, calling on politicians to increase support for kinship carers and the children they love.
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