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Kinship Care Week 2026
Kinship Care Week (5 to 11 October 2026) is a national week of awareness, recognition, and celebration of kinship families across England and Wales.
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What is Kinship Care Week for?
It’s a time to shine a light on the vital role of kinship carers, those raising a child of a family member or a friend, who provide over 141,000 children in England and Wales with loving and stable homes.
This includes grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, and family friends – who step up in extraordinary ways to keep children connected to their families, roots and communities.
As well as being a celebration of all kinship families, Kinship Care Week is an opportunity to raise awareness of the unique needs of kinship families. Having to overcome complex systems with limited support, all while ensuring their child feels safe and loved.
Celebrating kinship families, love and community
Kinship Care Week reminds us that there is a powerful community of kinship carers who share their experiences in many different ways to help other kinship carers feel less lonely and isolated. This year we’ll be celebrating our Kinship Community who are supporting one another and doing amazing things to raise awareness of kinship care. Join the community for more updates on how to get involved with Kinship Care Week and more.
"Fostering is a well-known term; why isn’t kinship care?"
Jane, Kinship carer
Looking back at Kinship Care Week
2017
A design workshop reimagining kinship care brought together kinship carers, social workers, academics, and charities to discuss solutions to some of the challenges faced by kinship families. They agreed that an awareness week for kinship families should become a national priority.
2018
The first ever Kinship Care Week is held across England and Wales, in partnership with Kinship Carers Liverpool.
Since 2020
Kinship Care Week is now national event, held every October to highlight the amazing work kinship carers do. Read more about what happened in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 2024 and 2025.
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