Kinship’s 2023 Annual Survey is now closed for responses.
A huge thank you to all of the incredible kinship carers across England and Wales who kindly shared their views and experiences with us; your responses will help us and others deliver better support to kinship families and bolster our efforts to campaign for the changes you want to see from Government and local authorities. We’re now busy analysing the results and will publish a new report with recommendations during Kinship Care Week (2 – 6 October 2023). If you’d like to stay up to date with this and other news of relevance to kinship families, you can join our Kinship Community.
It has been another challenging year for many kinship families, especially with significant increases in the cost of living. Too many kinship families continue to struggle without the financial, practical and emotional support they need.
But we know that change is on the horizon too. This year, the UK Government recognised that “too little support is given to extended family members who play a caring role for their young relatives” and has committed to delivering a dedicated national kinship care strategy by the end of the year for kinship families in England. Across both England and Wales, local authorities are stepping up and improving their services to recognise the unique needs of kinship families.
Your responses make a difference
This change doesn’t happen on its own. Our surveys have led the way in delivering crucial evidence and insight to local authorities and governments about what life is like for kinship families and what needs to change. Up and down the country, kinship carers are using this information to campaign for change in their local areas and push decision makers to support our #ValueOurLove campaign. The figures from our surveys have featured across national and local TV, radio and newspapers to boost awareness of kinship care and help more families get the support they need.
But we still need your help. By completing this year’s annual survey, you will help us design and deliver better services which meet the needs of kinship carers and their children, and support our work to campaign for change for all kinship families.
The survey will take around 20 minutes to complete and your responses are completely confidential. No identifiable information about you or your family will be included in any reports based on the survey findings
Kinship is committed to understanding the views and experiences of groups of kinship carers who we have struggled to reach in previous surveys, and especially where this does not align with what we understand to be the likely representation of kinship families. As such, we are especially keen to hear from informal kinship carers, kinship carers from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds, kinship carers aged under 45, sibling or family friend kinship carers, and male kinship carers.
For any questions about the annual survey, please contact us at comms@kinship.org.uk. To view the reports from previous annual surveys, visit our reports, briefings and responses page.
