Kinship calls on the Government to shift the focus towards kinship care

The government has announced investment of £160 million over three years to boost and support adoption. This includes £144 million for the Adoption Support Fund and follows the launch of the government’s National Adoption Strategy last summer.

Responding to the announcement, Dr Lucy Peake, Chief Executive of Kinship, said:

“It’s welcome news that the Adoption Support Fund will continue to provide children and their families – including some kinship families – with the support they need to recover from early trauma.

“However, while we agree with the importance of loving, stable families for children, we desperately need the government to shift the focus towards supporting kinship carers who are already providing this for thousands of children. 96% of kinship carers who responded to our 2021 Annual Survey said that they believed the child would be living with them permanently.

“Too often, this comes at huge personal cost for kinship carers and many are left unable to access the support they or their children need. The Adoption Support Fund should be renamed and its scope extended to provide all kinship families with therapeutic as well as other practical and emotional support – not just those whose children were previously in care.

“It’s time for the Government to step up and act, just as thousands of kinship carers do every year for children who cannot live with their parents.

“We need a kinship care strategy and investment so kinship carers get the financial, practical and emotional support they need and deserve.”

If you are affected by the issues raised in this response, please access our support service or find out more via our online information and advice. You can also join our Kinship Community to receive emails keeping you up-to-date on our awareness-raising and campaigning activities and how you can get involved.