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Our impact
Since 2001, we have been supporting kinship carers in England and Wales to access the advice, support and information they need to help provide a stable, loving home for the children they care for. And together with kinship carers we are making change happen across society so kinship families have the support they need.
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The difference we make
Each year, we support more than 15,000 kinship carers at every stage of their kinship journey providing advice, information and support.
As the beating heart of our organisation, kinship carers are central to everything we do. Using their expert experience, kinship carers have helped co-design our support services, research and campaigns.
Together, we are committing to change for kinship families.
*The data on this page is featured in our 2022/2023 annual report.
Our key achievements in 2023
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68 peer support groups, online and in person
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2,374 calls answered by our Kinship Advice Team
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182 matches through our Someone Like Me service
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126 free workshops delivered to 973 kinship carers
"Whenever I need support, [Kinship] are there advocating for me. They helped me with our housing, got my youngest a laptop and my oldest into Uni. It would never have happened without them. Kinship has been our rock."
Carrie, kinship carer
Support highlights
We have rapidly grown the number of our support groups. By the end of 2022 we had 68 support groups across England and Wales.
With every group that’s established, we see the impact that being connected with others in similar circumstances has. And we’re determined to ensure that even more carers can be part of this network and access the support they desperately need.
Over the years we have developed and expanded our support resources and workshops – providing training on topics that kinship carers told us were important to them. We delivered 126 free workshops to 973 kinship carers, in partnership with local authorities.
2,374 kinship carers were supported through our free, independent, expert Advice Line. Our specialists helped kinship carers to understand what financial support they may be entitled to, where they can find support for their wellbeing, how schools should be supporting the child they care for – and much more.
A total of 40 local authorities in England and Wales commissioned our programmes, which include intensive one-to-one support and peer support groups for kinship carers. In Wales, we built and developed our first commissioned service thanks to funding from the National Lottery Cymru.
Campaign highlights
In 2022, we fought to make sure that kinship care was included in the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care. Many of the recommendations we had long campaigned for, such as financial allowances, paid leave, training and peer support, were included. Our #ValueOurLOve campaign called for the Government to make sure those changes happened. Thanks to kinship carers sharing their stories, 12,000 people took a campaign action to call for more support for kinship families. This played a crucial role in securing the first ever National Kinship Care Strategy in England. Whilst progress was made in some of these areas, we continued campaigning alongside kinship carers to reform the system to secure all the support they need and deserve.
"For me the kinship care experience stole so much from me and the day I walked into the first campaign meeting I felt so powerless. But the whole process allowed my power to return."
Campaigning kinship carer
Research highlights
We commission our own research, as well as collaborate with academics, to ensure kinship carers can participate in research in a meaningful way. Each year we produce an annual survey where kinship carers share their views, experiences and challenges. The result of this research helps us to shape our policy and campaigning work to build a strong case for what needs to change. In 2023, we launched our Breaking Point report, which found that many kinship families are close to breaking point because they’re struggling to access the support they need. Our report included key recommendations, which help inform our policy calls to decision makers. Our Researchers Network grew to 75, whilst our Kinship Care Professionals Network grew to 1,715 in 2023.
Kinship Community highlights
Our community enables kinship carers to connect with each other and with Kinship. By last year our community grew to more than 10,000 and continues to strengthen and thrive. Across Kinship we ensure that a diverse range of kinship carers are meaningfully involved in all our plans, projects and opportunities - from research, service design to influencing policy and the development of our national peer-to-peer support service. We have begun to turn the skills, learnings and experiences of kinship carers into a Kinship Carer Participation and Involvement Framework. This ensures that their expertise supports the objectives, aims and the work of Kinship.
See related content
Read our latest annual report and accounts, containing our Chief Executive's report, our Trustees' report, a report from an independent auditor and information on our finances. Our historic reports are also available.