Help shape Kinship’s work

What changes kinship carers have made

Recently kinship carers have helped shape:

• our flagship Kinship Care Guide for England – research and interviews with kinship carers led to new chapters on education, legal and managing contact
• our national training programme for kinship carers – we spoke to kinship carers who told us what subjects were most useful to include, and how we should do it
• communications and marketing materials – kinship carers even fed into what you’re reading now

Types of projects you might be involved in

You could be involved in:

• giving feedback
• focus group (online or in person)
• testing elements of our service
• regular input during a project

There are both short-term (a 15-minute survey) and longer-term (over a few months) opportunities to get involved in.

How it works

If you register your interest we’ll invite you either to an online briefing or for a chat on the phone with our Participation Manager. We’ll then email you with any opportunities to take part. You can take part as much or as little as you like.

Any kinship carer can take part: you don’t need to have a formal kinship arrangement or legal order to participate.

Benefits of taking part

There are lots of benefits to getting involved and sharing your time and expertise with Kinship. You will get to:

• meet and learn from other kinship carers
• use your expertise to shape national services and programmes for kinship carers
• use your experiences to influence better outcomes for other kinship carers in the future
• gain new skills and experiences: we can give guidance and training on adding this to your CV if you’re interested

Payment for your time

For most participation activities we offer payment in vouchers as a thank you for your time. Payment is optional: you can decide whether to accept the payment or not, depending on your circumstances.

As a guide, we offer around £15 per hour in vouchers. We will make it clear before you start any activity if a payment is offered and if so, how much this will be.

It is important to know any payment you receive will count as income for either tax purposes or means-tested benefits.

We also cover out-of-pocket expenses (such as travel costs): this isn’t considered income and won’t affect tax or benefits.