Kinship's Practice Lead, Tim Fisher, reflects on discussions from our Knowledge Exchange event about the kinship care local offer and the value of co-production in local authorities.
Local authority practice
Local authorities are developing their kinship local offers and responding to a changing policy landscape, and Ofsted plan to update their inspection framework.
Good progress
Previous status: Slow progress (October 2024)
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What’s happening now?
Local authorities are continuing to consider their practice and support around kinship care, responding to the publication of updated kinship care statutory guidance and the Kinship Care Practice Guide in October 2024, and the continued emphasis placed on kinship care and family networks within the government’s Families First Partnership programme guide and revised Children’s Social Care National Framework, both updated in March 2026.
Following publication of its fostering policy paper in February 2026, the government has now closed its consultation on removing the requirement for the use of some fostering panels for kinship foster carers, and its call for evidence on the impact of changes to guidance on the use of flexibilities in the approval of kinship foster carers who do not meet minimum standards. In response, we argued that more comprehensive changes to the regulatory framework for kinship foster care were required to address this cohort’s specific needs and experiences.
Ofsted plans to consult in Summer 2026 to develop a renewed children and families services inspection framework for 2027. This will “align inspections with the broader reforms happening across children’s social care” which includes “recognising the value of family help, maintaining family connections and kinship care“.
The National Kinship Care Ambassador, Dr Jahnine Davis, published an insights paper in February 2026 which shares insights for kinship local offer implementation “intended to support local authorities to design kinship local offers that are transparent, equitable and responsive to the needs of kinship families”. The Ambassador also intends to publish national kinship standards in 2026 and has previously outlined plans to deliver resources for Ofsted and webinars to share learning.
What’s happened before?
The goverment was clear that refreshed kinship care statutory guidance, published in October 2024, “does not place any new statutory requirements on local authorities”, but “repositions previous guidance into a clear framework supported by updated factual information and legal guidance”. This included outlining a new ‘kinship local offer’ requirement to replace the existing family and friends care policy requirement.
Jahnine Davis was appointed by the Department for Education as the National Kinship Care Ambassador in October 2024. The role “advocates for kinship children and carers across government and works directly with local authorities to improve services”.
Very minor changes were been made to Ofsted’s inspection guidance in January 2024 to include reference to “kinship care” or “kinship” following commitments made in the National Kinship Care Strategy.
Following its consultation on establishing a new early career framework for children and family social workers, the government instead set out new child and family early career standards in February 2026, which outlines how social workers should learn how to deliver plans which “ensure family members and kinship carers have access to support that addresses current and potential future needs and concerns”.
Our verdict
Through our Professionals’ Network and local offer insights group, we are working with several local authorities to support them in co-producing their kinship local offers alongside local kinship families. Other welcome changes in local authority practice include restructuring services and teams to consider kinship care in its different forms, delivering improvements to the financial, practical and emotional support offered to kinship families.
It is reassuring that evidence from our 2025 annual survey of kinship carers suggests ratings of local authority support, information and trust from kinship carers are all improving, albeit from a low base.
Foundations’ Kinship Care Practice Guide marked an important step forward in identifying and recognising best practice in supporting kinship families at a time when kinship care awareness and recognition amongst professionals is growing. Its recommendations echo many of those we continue to advocate for local authorities to consider, including specialist support to help kinship carers navigate to and access support, and the use of financial allowances to increase placement permanency and reduce disruption. We are pleased to be working with Foundations on a pilot evaluation of our Kinship Connected navigator programme.
It is welcome that Ofsted has committed to updating its framework for inspecting local authority children’s services given its role as a lever for driving strategic change and practice improvement within children’s services. Government direction and local authority practice around kinship care and support for family networks has outpaced the focus placed on this within Ofsted’s existing inspection framework.
What should happen next?
Local authorities should work alongside their kinship families and local peer support groups to build a strong kinship local offer and inform their own practice with kinship families; the National Kinship Care Ambassador should be a key enabler of this. The role should have a strong focus on ensuring all local authorities deliver the essentials well, with priorities aligned to key objectives with the National Kinship Care Strategy and the Children’s Social Care National Framework.
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. We also encourage Ofsted to consider establishing a separate judgement for kinship care and support for family networks within the framework, similar to the (re)introduction of this for care leavers.
Further practice guidance around kinship care should be built on existing research and evidence in supporting kinship carers, including ‘Key elements of a special guardianship support service’ and ‘Developing good practice in financially supporting special guardians’. It should also address some of the challenges highlighted by specialist social workers who practice in kinship care given its unique mix of skills and knowledge which draw from elements of both child protection and mainstream fostering practice. 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.
The government must also ensure local authorities have the core, long-term funding they need to deliver reform and pioneer new ways of working with kinship families; current workforce and financial pressures make the recalibration of services, practice and culture all the more difficult.
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20% rated the support from their local authority as excellent or good, up from 12% in 2023
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1 in 8 had seen their local authority’s kinship local offer
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2 in 5 said they had a named local authority contact who they could go to for support
For professionals
Information and support for professionals working with kinship carers.
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Published ahead of Kinship Care Week 2025, Handle With Care shares key findings from our 2025 annual survey of more than 1,900 kinship carers to provide an updated ‘state of the nation’ overview of kinship families and the current policy context.
Related content
Learn how Kinship shapes policy and advocates for change. Through collaboration with families and policymakers, we work to ensure kinship carers’ voices are heard and supported across England and Wales.
We carry out research and share it with decision-makers and others to call for improvements in law, policy and professional practice. See all of our research and reports.
Learn more about the kinship families in your local area with our constituency figures.