New statutory guidance, a National Kinship Care Ambassador and Ofsted training will aim to enhance local authority practice in kinship care.
Kinship care policy tracker
Our kinship care policy tracker is the best place to understand more about the current state of play for kinship care policy in England.
Kinship care is a fast-moving policy space. Below you’ll find an overview of current action, our verdict, and what we think should happen next across a range of kinship care policy areas.
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.
To learn more about key policy areas for Kinship and explore reports, briefings and other resources, visit our policy and influencing page. For further information, or for a conversation about Kinship’s work to influence national and local policy, please get in touch.
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 virtual school heads role has been extended to include children in kinship care.
No plans are in place to extend legal aid for kinship carers.
There is a new national offer of training and support for all kinship carers and funding for developing peer support is continuing.
Guidance for employers has been introduced but no plans are in place for additional workplace entitlements for kinship carers.
The delivery of financial allowances will be tested in up to eight local authorities, but others can and should continue to pioneer leading practice.
New delivery models are being piloted which include testing earlier intensive support for family networks to avoid a child needing to enter the care system.
Evidence and data around kinship care is developing at pace which will provide new insights to support policymaking and practice.
A new definition of kinship care has been published, and Government will move towards use of ‘kinship care’ instead of ‘family and friends care’.
The previous UK Government placed family networks at the heart of plans for children’s social care and published a dedicated kinship care strategy.
The National Kinship Care Strategy articulates a new vision for kinship care but without a detailed roadmap for long term reform.