New kinship care statutory guidance and a Practice Guide have been published and a National Kinship Care Ambassador has been appointed.
Kinship care policy tracker
Kinship care is a fast-moving policy space. Our kinship care policy tracker is the best place to understand more about the current state of play for kinship care policy in England and get our verdict on what should happen next.
Our policy tracker does not represent a formal nor complete response in all areas; we regularly update the content below as progress is made, as new evidence emerges, and as our thinking as an organisation develops. We want to share our views early and often so you and others can help strengthen and support our policy work.
Last updated: 19 December 2024
2024
19 Dec: Several sections updated following the publication of the government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.
9 Dec: Updated sections following publication of new government figures on children looked after in kinship foster care and tabling of kinship care leave amendment NC14 to Employment Rights Bill.
19 Nov: Updated several sections following the publication of the government’s Keeping children safe, helping families thrive policy paper.
30 Oct: Updated ‘Financial allowances’ and ‘Building a new kinship care system’ sections following the Autumn Budget 2024,
27 Oct: Updated ‘Financial allowances’ section following announcement of a kinship allowance trial in the forthcoming Budget.
14 Oct: Updated ‘Local authority practice’ section following publication of new kinship care statutory guidance, Practice Guide for kinship care, and children’s social care data dashboard.
10 Oct: Amendments and updates made throughout, particularly to reflect new evidence from our Make or Break and Out of Order publications, and following announcements made by the Government during Kinship Care Week 2024.
21 Aug: Updated ‘Support for children in kinship care’ and ‘Therapeutic support for kinship families’ sections following the publication of our Forgotten report.
8 Jul: Manifesto tracker section removed and content throughout updated to reflect new UK Government, including previously articulated plans and priorities from the Labour Party.
10/11/12/13/24 Jun: Added new manifesto tracker section, including various party manifesto commitments around kinship care.
23 May: Language amended throughout to clarify actors and timelines (e.g. around the current and a future Government) in the context of a General Election being called for 4 July.
22 May: Noted Government response to written question sharing that financial allowances pathfinder information will be released “in the coming months”.
24 Apr: Added information within the ‘Data and research’ section to summarise the current data picture for kinship care in England and note recent new information obtained via parliamentary written questions.
15 Apr: Noted recomissioning of Kinship to grow peer support groups and added link to updated list of local authorities involved in next waves of FFC and FNP programmes.
29 Feb: Added a note within the ‘Financial allowances’ section about the #ValueOurLove campaign steering group writing to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury ahead of the Spring Budget 2024.
2023
18 Dec: Revised structure and all sections following the publication of the National Kinship Care Strategy on 15 December 2023.
23 Nov: Amended ‘Financial allowances’ and ‘Kinship care leave’ sections following the Autumn Statement 2023.
1 Nov: Amended ‘Training and support or kinship carers’ section following announcement of a new national training and support offer to be delivered by Kinship.
3 Oct: Added key findings from our Breaking Point report throughout, as well as references to new evidence on local authority support variation from Foundation’s recent survey.
27 Sep: Revised structure to add separate ‘Defining kinship care’ and ‘Data’ sections, added new information on the ONS’ analysis of kinship households, added news on Tesco’s commitment to kinship care leave, and downgraded ‘Prioritising and supporting early kinship arrangements’ to ‘In the right direction…’ following the Government’s Stable Homes response.
21 Sep: Updates made across all sections following the publication of the Government’s responses to its Stable Homes and National Framework consultations.
18 Sep: Added updated information on kinship care and data in the ‘Recognising kinship care’ section, including noting the forthcoming 2021 Census analysis release.
26 July: Amended information on the pathfinder and pilot activity in the ‘Prioritising and supporting early kinship arrangements’ section following the release of further details, including participating local authorities.
19 July: Added updated information on the Family Network Support Package pilots in the ‘Prioritising and supporting early kinship arrangements’ section.
5 July: Added to the ‘Financial allowances’ section to include a recent recommendation from the Lords Public Services Committee, and updated the ‘Training and support for kinship carers’ and ‘Recognising kinship care’ sections (e.g. to include details of a new tender for a national kinship care dataset).
15 June: Updated ‘Kinship care leave’ section to include reference to Forced Out, clarified language in ‘Prioritising and supporting early kinship arrangements’ section, and added note re: ‘whole family’ support in ‘Support for kinship children’ section.
2 May: Updated ‘Access to legal aid’ section with note of new extended eligibility for those pursuing special guardianship in private family law.
26 April: Updated ‘Access to legal aid’ section with additional evidence on non-parental private family law applications.
16 March: Updated ‘Financial allowances’ and ‘Kinship care leave’ sections following announcements made in the 2023 Spring Budget around childcare, Qualifying Care Relief and flexible working.
13 March: First published.
The Adoption Support Fund has been rebranded as the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund.
The remit of Virtual School Heads has been extended to include a wider group of children in kinship care and will be put on a statutory footing.
There are no current plans to extend legal aid for kinship carers.
There is a new national offer of training and support for all kinship carers and funding for peer support is continuing.
Employers are stepping up to provide paid leave for their kinship carer employees in the absence of any plans to introduce statutory leave and pay.
The Autumn Budget confirmed a trial of a kinship allowance in up to 10 local authorities, but no further details are yet known.
New ways of working are testing how local authorities can deliver earlier intensive support for family networks to avoid children entering the care system.
Although improving at pace, the absence of robust research and data on kinship families significantly limits visibility and the strengthening of policy and practice.
There is a government definition of kinship care used in statutory guidance, and Government is replacing use of 'family and friends care' with ‘kinship care'.
Family networks and kinship care have been placed at the heart of the national policy direction for children's social care and the Department for Education's priorities.
Substantial reform will be conditional on securing investment in the next multi-year Spending Review. There are some opportunities to consider how a new kinship care system could operate.