Information and support for professionals working with kinship carers.
For professionals:
Join our Professionals' Network
Our Professionals’ Network is free to join and is for social workers, academics and other professionals with an interest in kinship care.
Are you a kinship carer?
Please visit Support and advice for kinship carers
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About our Professionals’ Network
The Kinship Care Professionals’ Network is free to join and is for social workers, academics and other professionals with an interest in kinship care. The group meets quarterly. Most meetings are online and we also host in-person knowledge exchange events. Meetings are facilitated by Kinship.
The Kinship Care Professionals’ Network provides an opportunity to meet fellow practitioners and researchers and to share and develop best practice in kinship carer support and get the latest policy updates from Kinship. We will also send the occasional e-newsletter keeping you up-to-date with all news, research, campaigns and events from Kinship.
Testimonials
Read how others have benefitted from being a part of our Professionals’ Network.
"I've been attending the Kinship Professionals' Network for at least 2 years and over this time I have found the meetings to be an extremely useful forum for representatives from Family and Friends Teams to come together to share information and experiences. Kinship have arranged for speakers to attend as well as opportunities for different local authorities to provide presentations on projects that are working well in their area or the way in which their local authority structures the Family and Friends assessments which has also been extremely beneficial and a useful resource."
Surrey County Council Fostering Team West, Family and Friends
"I work as a supervising social worker with family and friends foster carers in Wandsworth. I've been attending the Kinship Professionals' Network for 6 years, and it has been an invaluable means of sharing information and best practice with colleagues in other local authorities. It has also provided an opportunity to hear the views and experience of a range of stakeholders from kinship carers to politicians."
Senior Social Worker – Fostering Team, Wandsworth Education and Social Services Department
Interested in hosting a future meeting?
If you are interested in hosting a future meeting or promoting the group to other kinship care professionals, please email research@kinship.org.uk.
Sign up to our Professionals’ Network
Use the form below to join our Professionals’ Network.
Practising in kinship care: the perspectives of social workers
In 2021, we launched a report on the views and experiences of social work practitioners specialising in kinship care. The research, conducted by Joan Hunt, Honorary Professor, Cardiff School of Law and Politics, is believed to be the first to focus on the views and experiences of social work practitioners working in kinship care, and has important implications for policy and practice in the sector.
Related content
Information, advice and support for professionals working with kinship carers.
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