First kinship carers meet new children and families minister

The new Minister for Children and Families, Josh MacAlister MP, met with kinship carers for the first time in his new role this week. 

The Minister, who previously led The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care before becoming an MP, is now in charge of kinship care policy in government. He listened to the group’s experiences and struggles to raise kinship children without proper financial, emotional or practical support. 

Kinship’s chief executive Lucy Peake joined the group of kinship carers who highlighted the severe challenges they face around lack of financial allowances, statutory paid leave and vital therapy funding cuts for kinship children. 

Kinship carer Carmen said: “Kinship carers like us step up to provide the children we love with secure loving homes, but we’re not given any support to help us. A financial allowance on a par with foster carers would have massively helped my kinship family. Instead, we’ve had to rely on food banks to get by. It’s just not right. I really hope the new Minister listens to us and gives us the support we desperately need.” 

After the meeting Lucy Peake said the group of kinship carers were delighted to meet with the Minister in his new role given his previous advocacy and support for kinship care and his understanding of what needs to change for kinship families. 

The recommendations made by the final report of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care were originally welcomed as a ‘pivotal moment’ for kinship carers – the relatives and friends who step up to raise more than 130,000 children in England when their parents can’t – three times the number living with unrelated foster carers. 

But the charity has become concerned that the reforms in what was once billed a bold plan to improve the lives of kinship families have stalled. 

Lucy Peake said:

“We look forward to working again with the new Minister for Children and Families who previously oversaw the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care and made a series of bold recommendations to “unlock the potential of family networks”. 

“We were delighted to work alongside him and the Review team to bring 20 years of evidence from our research, programme delivery and work on the ground with kinship families and local authorities to their thinking. 

“Since then, the government has failed to deliver the seismic shift in kinship care support promised by the Review’s recommendations. However, we’re optimistic that the new Minister will use his wealth of experience and passion to breathe new life into the reforms and ensure kinship carers finally receive the support they’ve long been promised.”