Kinship responds to new figures on children looked after in England

Today, the Department for Education has published new statistics on children looked after in England, including adoption, for 2023 to 2024. The new figures show that more children are being raised by relatives and friends in local authority care (under kinship foster care arrangements) than ever before. As of 31 March 2024, there were 13,660 children living in ‘kinship foster care’ – an 18% increase over the last five years. Kinship foster care placements are now 24% of all foster placements.

At the same time, the number of children who left local authority care last year to other, more permanent kinship care arrangements remained similar to previous years. Around 5000 children left care in the year ending 31 March 2024 as a result of a special guardianship or child arrangements order being made.

This reflects the same pattern revealed by our Out of Order policy paper, published in September – significantly more children are being looked after and staying longer in kinship foster care than ever before, whilst movement from local authority care to kinship arrangements outside of the care system has stalled.

Whilst it’s right that we prioritise arrangements with family and friends if children must enter local authority care, and recognise that kinship foster care will be the right option for some, we are concerned that too many children remain unnecessarily looked after in kinship foster care because this is often the only way they and their kinship carers can access guaranteed support.

National charity Kinship’s CEO, Lucy Peake said:

“We are concerned these figures indicate that many kinship carers may be feeling no choice but to keep the children they are raising under local authority (foster) care because they need the guarantee of the right to access the financial, therapeutic and educational support available to foster carers, that they know the children in their care desperately need.

“The government must prioritise rolling out financial allowances to all kinship carers, so that children being raised by a family member or friend do not need to be under local authority care to access support. This would help relieve pressure on overstretched local authority budgets.

“The government’s forthcoming trial of a kinship allowance in 10 local authorities is welcome, but it must not delay progress towards a wider rollout. We’re urging the government to go further and faster and use the forthcoming multi-year spending review to accelerate plans to invest in the financial, practical and emotional support kinship families need.”