Kinship celebrates inclusion of kinship carers within government’s parental leave review

Kinship has today welcomed that support for kinship carers is included within the scope of the government’s long-awaited parental leave review.

Launching its review today, the government has confirmed that it will examine whether current support meets the needs of working families who do not qualify for existing leave and pay entitlements, such as kinship carers.

Unlike birth parents and adopters, kinship carers – relatives and family friends who step up to raise children, often in times of crisis – have no legal right to paid leave from work when they take on the responsibility of raising a child in their family. Kinship is campaigning for kinship carers to be able to access this key support, so that they aren’t forced to give up work to play this important role.

Kinship carers’ lives change overnight, as they take on the care of children who have often experienced trauma and loss with no support. There are more than 141,000 children in kinship care in England and Wales – 3 times the number in mainstream foster care.

A lack of entitlement to paid leave often forces kinship carers to leave their jobs to care for a relative or friend’s child. This can plunge them into financial hardship and into the benefits system. This can also hinder their ability to provide the stability these children need.

Earlier this year, we published new research Making work pay for kinship carers which revealed how poor employment support was pushing kinship carers out of the labour market unnecessarily and keeping them there.

Our survey of 1,300 kinship carers – aunts, uncles, grandparents, siblings and friends – revealed that nearly half (45%) of kinship carers in work lose their jobs and careers when they step up to raise a relative or friend’s child, often to stop them going into local authority care. 80% of those who stopped working when they became kinship carers have never returned to any form of work. Only 3% of kinship carers were able to take any kind of discretionary paid leave, and just 8% were able to take unpaid leave.

Kinship’s Director of Policy and Communications, Rhiannon Clapperton, welcomed the recognition of kinship carers in the review:

“This review is a crucial opportunity to address this unfair and longstanding gap in the law. Kinship has been campaigning to secure greater employment support for kinship carers for over a decade. Most recently, our #ValueOurLove campaign has called on the government to include kinship carers in this review and we’re delighted they have listened. This is the first time kinship carers have been recognised alongside working parents in a review of this kind.

“All working parents and carers deserve to have the right support at work. Yet for too long kinship carers have been unfairly left out. Being recognised in the review is a milestone for kinship campaigners. We now call on those in government leading the review to ensure that they engage with kinship carers and listen to their experiences and expertise, and ultimately deliver a new right to statutory pay and leave which provides these families with the support they need and deserve.”

In September 2023, Tesco – the UK’s largest private-sector employer – took steps to grant 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. They are one of many leading employers who have joined Kinship’s Kinship Friendly Employer scheme and deliver paid leave for kinship carers in their workforce in the absence of any statutory right.

Stacey Pix, Head of Workplace Relations at Tesco, said:

“Tesco has more than 300,000 colleagues working year-round to serve our customers and communities right across the country. We increased Kinship Leave to 26 weeks at full pay last year as part of a range of improved colleague benefits, helping many of our colleagues to balance new family responsibilities. These colleagues have told us how this time was really important to manage changes in their personal lives. We will continue to work with organisations such as Kinship to raise awareness of the benefits of paid Kinship Leave for both colleagues and businesses.”

For more information on what’s happening now, our verdict, and what should happen next for kinship care leave, visit our kinship care policy tracker.