What is the Kinship Friendly Employer scheme, and why join?
In Kinship’s ‘Forced Out’ report, based on a survey of 500+ kinship carers, 68% of respondents said their employer didn’t offer support to kinship carers. More than 4 in 10 (41%) kinship carers told us they had to leave work permanently and further 45% were forced to reduce their working hours.
However, when employers do support kinship carers in their workforce it can make a massive difference. Katie, who works in HR for cardfactory, became a Special Guardian for her niece. She said:
“I was given immediate trust and told that as long as the work got done everything was fine. That made a massive difference to me…(cardfactory) are an inclusive, friendly employer, and they didn’t hesitate to extend paid leave to kinship carers…in fact, its enhanced leave….There’s no reason why kinship carers shouldn’t have parity with adopters or birth parents when it comes to paid leave.”
Katie, special guardian
Our Kinship Friendly Employer scheme has been set up to provide a free framework and toolkit to help any employer – from any sector and of any size – to follow cardfactory’s example and introduce Kinship Friendly policies.
These policies will support kinship carers in the workforce who want to stay in work to maintain their income, job security and career prospects whilst stepping up to take on caring responsibilities for children they love.
What are the benefits of being a Kinship Friendly Employer?
By becoming a Kinship Friendly Employer, you will be publicly recognised as an organisation that wants to support their employees with balancing their work whilst looking after their children. The Kinship Friendly Employer scheme is a new initiative. By joining, you will be seen as leading in your sector as an inclusive and supportive employer. This will lead to less workforce attrition and a happier, more committed and loyal workforce. Kinship will work with you to:
- publicise and promote your Kinship Friendly Employer status on Kinship’s website, social media channels and external communications
- introduce you to other organisations and industry bodies to forge connections with other Kinship Friendly Employers, and share learnings and best practice
- collaborate around Kinship Care Week (each October), promoting your commitment to kinship carers during this week
- signpost kinship carers in your workforce to Kinship’s free and independent advice, information and support services (available to kinship carers in England and Wales)
How can an organisation become a Kinship Friendly Employer?
Any organisation can become a Kinship Friendly Employer by using Kinship’s resources and support to introduce kinship friendly policies.
Given the current absence of a statutory underpinning for kinship employment policies, particularly paid kinship care leave, the Kinship Friendly Employers Scheme enables employers to seize the initiative. Our Kinship Friendly Employers scheme supports employers to introduce kinship friendly policies, procedures and support for their colleagues that can be accommodated by their individual organisation.
As a starting point, you can access our free Kinship Friendly Employer toolkit by filling out the request form below. We will then send you an introductory email and the toolkit which includes template policies, checklists, and guidance for HR and line managers.
Gold, Silver and Bronze Standards
Kinship has developed Gold, Silver and Bronze tiered standards for employers, based on the scope and extent of their kinship friendly policies. We have produced checklists of policies for each standard, summarised below. This is to allow an organisation to cross-reference existing and new policies to ascertain what standard they will be recognised at as a Kinship Friendly Employer by us.
Meeting these standards and being recognised as a kinship friendly employer will demonstrate to your workforce, suppliers, stakeholders and prospective employees that you value, understand and support kinship carers. You will receive recognition from us, as the leading kinship care charity, for meeting a high threshold of support.
Acknowledging the lack of statutory underpinning for kinship carers in the workplace, Kinship welcomes all employers making an effort to recognise, value and support kinship carers in their workforce. Over time, an employer could move up through the tiers, perhaps as they develop new policies or are able to make business cases for increasing provisions available for kinship carers.
Bronze Standard
- The organisation does not provide paid kinship care leave, but includes kinship carers in all other family friendly policies, e.g. paid/unpaid Dependents Leave; Flexible Working; subsidies for childcare and/or healthcare plans which can include dependents.
- The organisation provides signposting and information for kinship carers in the workforce (template available in Kinship Friendly Employers toolkit, as set out below) via staff intranet, internal communications or similar and promotes annual Kinship Care Week to staff (downloadable resource packs available at kinship.org.uk).
- The organisation supports managers and leaders to be kinship-aware, and as flexible as business needs can accommodate when supporting kinship carer staff members (guidance available in the Kinship Friendly Employers toolkit).
Silver Standard
- The organisation provides paid kinship care leave, which allows kinship carers to take paid time off work and return to their job. But the organisation is unable to offer the equivalent leave as they do for adoption leave.
- Recognition, support and inclusion for kinship carers in the workforce, as detailed in Bronze standard checklist.
Gold Standard
- Provision of paid kinship care leave on a par with the organisation’s provision of adoption leave. For example, for organisations that offer statutory adoption leave, kinship care leave should be offered at the equivalent level. Likewise, organisations that provide an enhanced adoption leave offer should provide the same offer for kinship carers.
- Recognition, support and inclusion for kinship carers in the workforce, as detailed in Bronze standard checklist.
Kinship Friendly Employers case studies
We are working with some trailblazing employers who have become our first Kinship Friendly Employers. We have produced the case studies below with them to help guide other organisations who want to join scheme on the measures they can introduce.
Tesco – the first UK supermarket to give Special Guardian kinship carers same support as adoptive parents
In September 2023, Tesco – the UK’s largest private-sector employer – granted colleagues who have a Special Guardianship Order (SGO) to care for relatives’ children equal rights with colleagues who adopt – giving them both 26 weeks’ leave on full pay.
Kinship greatly welcomes this move and estimates that hundreds of kinship carers work for Tesco. Our CEO, Dr Lucy Peake, said about Tesco’s initiative:
“We are thrilled that Tesco is stepping up for kinship carer Special Guardians in its workforce by introducing paid kinship care leave on a par with adoption leave.
Tesco’s new policy will make an enormous difference to many Special Guardian kinship carers across the country, who will now be able to take paid time off when to support children who have often experienced trauma and focus on their needs, knowing they will have a job to return to.
“We’re very proud to be working with Tesco as they implement this industry-leading support for Special Guardians and hope over time it can extended to all kinship carers. We urge other retailers to follow their lead and will soon be launching our Kinship Friendly Employers scheme to encourage employers of all sizes to better support kinship carers in the workforce”.
Taylor Kershaw, who works in the Employer Brand team at Tesco, found her life turned upside down when she stepped up at the age of 25 to look after her brother’s newborn daughter.
Taylor was able to raise awareness of the issue facing kinship carers with colleagues in the Tesco People team, which led to the new policy being introduced. Taylor said: “This is a gamechanger for all colleagues facing up to such a major life change. I was just 25 years old when I stepped up to become a guardian to a child that was only five days old.
“I was heartbroken for my brother and his partner, but suddenly I had to navigate becoming a guardian while still living at home and working full-time. This leave would have taken a lot of pressure from my shoulders and given me time to bond with baby and settle into my new role.”
James Goodman, Tesco UK People Director, said: “Relatives who take on the care of a child often feel forced to reduce their hours or even leave their jobs as they try to juggle extra responsibilities, and we wanted to step up to offer kinship carers the same support as colleagues who adopt a child.”
Surviving Economic abuse – added kinship carers in their recently updated Family Leave Policy
The thinking behind including kinship carers in Surviving Economic Abuse to their updated Family Leave Policy was to give them the same rights as people who adopt/foster. They have introduced paid leave for kinship carers at the same level as statutory adoption leave.
As an organisation working in the domestic abuse sector, they are very mindful that children may be cared for by family members/friends because it might not be safe for them to live at home with an abusive parent, or because an abusive parent has killed their mother or father and is now in prison.
cardfactory – equalisation of kinship care and maternity leave
cardfactory introduced kinship leave in 2022 to complement and enhance their approach to family friendly policies, recognising the diverse needs of our colleagues. They offer kinship carers the same enhanced leave entitlements as maternity, adoption and shared parental leave policies to provide an inclusive family friendly offering.
