Davina McCall meets kinship carers supported by Kinship and Comic Relief in new film  

Davina McCall is shining a light on kinship care and national charity Kinship’s work empowering kinship carers to campaign for the support their families desperately need, in a new Comic Relief film ahead of Red Nose Day. Watch a sneak peak of the film on Kinship’s YouTube channel and the entire film on Kinship’s Facebook channel.

In the film the presenter sits down with kinship carers Wendy, Kelly and Meyrem who are part of Kinship’s #ValueOurLove campaign, to chat about the challenges kinship families face and the reasons they are speaking up for change. In a moving moment, Davina shares her own experience of growing up in kinship care, having been raised by her grandmother from the age of 4.

Kinship carers are the relatives or family friends who step up to raise children when their parents can’t. There are more than 141,000 children living in kinship care in England and Wales, more than twice the number in foster care.

Speaking about their experiences in the film, the women all describe feeling isolated when they first stepped up to care for the child of a family member, and the struggles they faced financially and emotionally. None of the women were aware of the term ‘kinship carer’ until they discovered support from Kinship.

Money raised by Red Nose Day, which returns on Friday 15 March, will support Kinship, the leading kinship care charity in England and Wales, as well as organisations in the UK and around the world. Comic Relief funding supports Kinship’s #ValueOurLove campaign, which calls for equal support between kinship families and foster and adoptive families.

Davina McCall said: “Kinship is a charity particularly close to my heart and one I’ve supported before I even knew Red Nose Day was involved in helping spread their message.

“Getting to know Wendy, Kelly and Meyrem was extremely moving – not only was I able to learn more about their amazing work, but I was able to have conversations that I relate to on a deep level and was able to honour my grandmother who did such a sterling job with me.

“Taking in the child of a family member or friend is really, really, hard. Sometimes people end up sleeping on sofas to try and make their beds available for kids that they’ve taken in, sometimes they’ll go without food in order to feed the children that they’ve suddenly started looking after. But this act can change a child’s life forever and the work that Kinship does to support these families is really valuable. I know that times are tough but even giving a little this Red Nose Day, can make a massive difference”.

Kinship carers face many barriers to campaigning, in part because of their busy and challenging roles as carers, but also because most have felt unheard, unsupported and invisible to society for so long. Comic Relief’s support for Kinship has been vital in enabling kinship carers to speak out about the injustices they are facing and campaign for better recognition, understanding of and support for all kinship families. Kinship’s Campaign Champions project which is part of the #ValueOurLove campaign provides training, toolkits, group support and one-to-one support, to build the kinship carers’ knowledge, skills, and confidence, so they can use their voices to create change. Over the past year, more than 12,000 kinship carers across England and Wales and their supporters have taken an active role in the campaign.

Lucy Peake, CEO of Kinship, said: “It was wonderful to see Davina meet some of the kinship carers that we support and empower to campaign for the financial, practical and emotional support that families like theirs need. As someone who grew up in kinship care herself, Davina had real insight into the experiences of kinship families and the challenges they have faced. Comic Relief’s support has been transformational in enabling kinship carers to be seen, heard, valued and better supported.

“Unlike foster carers or adoptive parents, there is little awareness about kinship care, and as a result, little support available. Our research tells us that more than 7 in 10 kinship carers do not feel they are getting adequate support to raise the children in their care, despite stepping up at a moment’s notice to raise children in a loving and stable home.”

Kinship carer, Meyrem said: “I became a kinship carer overnight when I took in additional family members. Even though I suddenly had 3 more children to look after and my family was complete, I’d lost myself and I felt very, very isolated.

“Kinship has helped build me back up and given me this voice. My first campaigning experience was speaking to a parliamentary taskforce, I’ll never forget standing there shaking and feeling so nervous but thinking, ‘I’ve got to do this for other kinship carers’ – and it worked, we ended up getting the therapeutic support that we needed for our children.

“Because of Comic Relief funding, it’s easier to explain what a kinship carer is, more and more people are aware. My hope is that one day everyone knows.”

Find out more about the #ValueOurLove campaign. If you’re a kinship carer, find out how to become a Kinship Campaign Champion like Wendy, Meyrem and Kelly.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and X to watch more snippets of the film and see behind-the-scenes pictures of the special day.