Kinship's #ValueOurLove campaign

For too long kinship care has been overlooked and undervalued. We’re calling on politicians to increase support for kinship families.

Join the #ValueOurLove campaign

Kinship care has been overlooked

Every child needs love. That’s why, when parents can’t look after a child, it’s often best if they can be brought up in ‘kinship care’ – where a grandparent, uncle, aunt, sibling or family friend steps in to raise them.

Kinship care means love and stability. But for too long many politicians have overlooked kinship carers and undervalued the role they have in keeping 141,000 children in England and Wales out of the care system.

Children in kinship care have often had a really difficult start in life having experienced trauma and loss. Yet kinship families are unfairly blocked from the essential extra financial, health and emotional support that children in care and those looking after them can get.

In fact, 8 in 10 kinship families aren’t getting the vital support they need from their local authorities to meet their child’s needs. As a result, nearly 1 in 8 kinship carers have told us they are concerned about continuing to care for their kinship children if their situations don’t improve.

This unfair system is risking thousands of children’s futures. If kinship carers can’t continue to look after them, they could lose their stable and loving home.

That’s why the #ValueOurLove campaign is calling on politicians to increase support for kinship carers and the children they love.

What we want to see

We need kinship families across England and Wales to be provided with urgent support, and for steps to be taken to build a kinship care system fit for all kinship families.

The #ValueOurLove campaign is calling on the UK and Welsh Governments to:

1. Equalise financial allowances between foster and kinship families.

All kinship families should receive the financial support they need, when they need it. This should include a financial allowance that matches the current minimum fostering allowance to help them cover the unexpected costs of caring for a child.

2. Equalise access to training and support between kinship carers and foster carers.

Kinship carers should have access to information, advice, practical and emotional support from the point they take on a child, including free legal advice, preparation and training, therapeutic and peer support.

3. Equalise paid leave from work between adoptive and kinship families.

Kinship carers should receive kinship care leave on a par with adoption leave when the child first moves into their care to allow the child to settle in and to avoid them having to leave their jobs.

4. Equalise support between children in kinship care and those in care.

Children in kinship care should have extra support in school and access to health and therapeutic support to help them deal with the impact of abuse, trauma and loss.

Support our latest action

Join thousands of kinship carers and campaign supporters in calling for the new government to #ValueOurLove, and provide more and better support for kinship families.

4 kinship carers wearing navy blue Kinship T-shirts with their arms in the air in front of Parliament. Two of them are holding up a Value Our Love placard.
A group of kinship carer campaigners talking to Helen Hayes MP

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Join us as we campaign together for all kinship carers and the children they love.

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A family smiling and walking together on a muddy road in the countryside.

Kinship care in your area

Find out about the kinship families in your local area and the challenges facing kinship carers in your region using our constituency map.

Find kinship statistics in your area