Our 2026 annual survey report calls for a renewed national focus on the mental health of children in kinship care.
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.
Understanding kinship carer networks to inform targeted support
This study aims to understand the role of support from family, friends and community groups for kinship carers from different backgrounds.
View Understanding kinship carer networks to inform targeted support
Raised by Relatives: the experiences of Black and Asian kinship carers
This research explores the experiences of Black and Asian kinship carers in England. Read the full report now.
View Raised by Relatives: the experiences of Black and Asian kinship carersResearch and reports by year
2026
- Time Hasn’t Healed: Annual survey of kinship carers 2026
- Designing a new right to paid leave for kinship carers
- Understanding kinship carer networks to inform targeted support
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 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.
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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