Improving local authority practice

Current action

The previous Government committed in the National Kinship Care Strategy to delivering new statutory guidance on kinship care in Spring 2024, titled ‘Kinship Care: Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities’, to replace existing Family and Friends Care guidance last updated in 2011 and improve standards and consistency in local authority practice. However, publication was delayed as a result of the General Election and we await further information from the new Government about new timings.

Outcome 2 of the Government’s Children’s Social Care National Framework (children and young people are supported by their family network) sets out how leaders and practitioners should strive to ensure this outcomes is met in their practice. Stable Homes, Built on Love outlined plans to introduce Practice Guides which aim to set out the best evidenced approaches for achieving the outcomes set within the National Framework.

The National Kinship Care Strategy notes that Ofsted inspectors will receive additional bespoke training around kinship care and that Ofsted have committed to reviewing published guidance to ensure references to kinship care are clear and that local authorities’ strengths and weaknesses in kinship care practice are captured in their inspection reports.

A new National Kinship Care Ambassador was expected to be appointed in Spring 2024, but this has also been delayed. Based on the model of the National Implementation Adviser for Care Leavers, their responsibility will be to support local authorities to improve their own support offers to kinship families in line with the Government’s children’s social care reforms, share leading practice across local authorities, and act in a ‘consultancy’ role to help raise standards in social work and local authority practice.

The National Kinship Care Strategy also notes that ongoing work to introduce a new Early Career Framework for social workers will set out the skills and knowledge needed to support kinship families well, and that practitioners will be supported to share best practice around kinship care through events and forums, including in areas such as carer identification and assessment.

Our verdict

New statutory guidance is welcome; current guidance is outdated and fails to capture the current policy context and focus on kinship care. It is particularly welcome this will reaffirm expectations that every local authority publishes an accessible and regularly-updated policy setting out its approach to supporting all kinship families; 35% of kinship carers recently rated the information provided by their local authority as ‘very poor’ and only 7% said they had never seen their local authority’s existing policy.

It is good to see a commitment within the National Kinship Care Strategy to introduce new training for Ofsted inspectors. This should ensure they can scrutinise and investigate local authorities’ support and practice around kinship care more effectively; this must be reflected clearly and visibly in their inspection reports. However, it’s unfortunate that the Strategy doesn’t go much further to consider the inspectorate given the role Ofsted play in supporting and challenging local authority practice with kinship families.

It’s very welcome to see recognition that central government has a role in supporting and improving local authority practice directly too. We agree with the ambition articulated in Stable Homes, Built on Love that social workers should “feel confident to prioritise family-led solutions for children.”

Whilst we welcome the new National Kinship Care Ambassador, unlike other areas of children’s social care (such as leaving care support), practice in kinship care is less well developed and approaches vary considerably between – and even within – different local authorities. Our research has identified some of the key challenges and considerations for specialist social work practice in kinship care; some are delivering pioneering work which recognises the specific needs and strengths of kinship families whereas others are struggling to deliver the very basics. There is a risk the new Ambassador role’s power is muted in the context of local authorities operating without the capacity, space nor expertise to embed new ways of working, and particularly given the extreme workforce and financial pressures in children’s social care.

What should happen next

New statutory guidance on kinship care must retain the original guidance’s direction that services should not be allocated solely on the basis of the child’s legal status nor withheld because the child is living under an informal arrangement. New guidance should be delivered as soon as possible.

We want to see Ofsted significantly enhance the attention paid to kinship care practice and support within its inspections and undertake a thematic review of its inspection reports to support this work, and will continue to encourage Ofsted to consider establishing a separate judgement for kinship care within its inspection framework for local authority children’s services, similar to the recent (re)introduction of this for care leavers. This would align the inspection framework with the new National Framework, giving sufficient weight to considerations around kinship care and supporting family networks. It is crucial that Ofsted moves with the Department for Education to present a unified picture to local authority leaders on the prioritisation of kinship care and support for family networks.

We look forward to working with the Kinship Care Ambassador to ensure the insight from our work in partnership with local authorities helps more children’s services teams deliver the kind of practice which kinship carers want to see. The role should have a strong focus on ensuring all local authorities deliver the essentials well, with priorities aligned to key objectives with the strategy and reaffirmed requirements within the updated statutory guidance, and support local authorities to involve kinship carers in building better practice cultures and offers of support.

The Practice Guides expected as part of the National Framework should be built on existing research and evidence in supporting kinship carers, such as work commissioned by the Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board including ‘Key elements of a special guardianship support service’ and ‘Developing good practice in financially supporting special guardians’. They should also address some of the challenges highlighted by specialist social workers who practice in kinship care, especially given its unique mix of skills and knowledge which draw from elements of both child protection and mainstream fostering practice. This includes improving social workers’ delivery of high-quality support plans tailored to the unique needs of each child, and in offering advice or help with parental contact – this can be particularly difficult for kinship families to navigate given existing very complex and challenging family relationships and especially in the context of adversarial court processes.

Where these do not exist already, local authorities should consider establishing specialist kinship teams with the breadth of skills necessary to deliver high-quality social work support; this should be encouraged by the new Government and the National Kinship Care Ambassador. Many local authorities have already developed specialist teams who are delivering pioneering support for kinship carers, and Kinship and others offer existing forums which bring together professionals to share good practice and learn from each other.

The National Practice Group should be extended to include additional representation from those with expertise in kinship care, including from lived and professional experience, that matches the strength of the commitment to supporting family networks within the National Framework and the National Kinship Care Strategy.