Kinship care leave

What’s happening now?

There are no current plans to introduce statutory paid employment leave for kinship carers. Neither the government’s Employment Rights Bill nor Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill contain such provisions, although amendments tabled by Steve Darling MP and Munira Wilson MP in the Commons and Lord Palmer of Childs Hill and Lord Storey in the Lords for each Bill respectively have sought to include this,

The government is planning a review of the parental leave system to commence in the Summer and there are some positive signals that kinship care leave is likely to be included within the scope of the review, although this is yet to be confirmed. In June, the Women & Equalities Committee echoed our call and recommended that “the Government’s review must include consideration of the needs of kinship carers, with a view to including them in the paid parental leave system. This should include consideration of the costs and wider benefits of implementing statutory paid leave for kinship carers, in line with provision for parents by adoption and surrogacy.”

In the interim, Kinship’s Kinship Friendly Employer scheme is encouraging and supporting employers to introduce paid leave policies for their own kinship carer employees. To date, we have worked alongside trailblazing employers including Tesco, John Lewis Partnership, B&Q, cardfactory and Lloyds Banking Group.

Following a commitment made in the National Kinship Care Strategy, the Department for Education has also introduced a paid leave policy for its own kinship carer employees and becomes the first government department to achieve ‘gold standard’ from the Kinship Friendly Employer scheme in doing so.

What’s happened previously?

The previous government’s Stable Homes, Built on Love strategy committed to “explore additional workplace entitlements” for kinship carers and provide an update in the National Kinship Care Strategy, However, no further action was taken here other than to deliver new guidance for employers on how they can support kinship carers at work. This sets out best practice for supporting kinship carers at work, including how to adapt internal HR policies and improve cultures of support, and signposts to our Kinship Friendly Employer scheme.

The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care recommended that paid leave on a par with adoption leave should be introduced for special guardians and kinship carers with a child arrangements order where the child would otherwise be in care, and a similar recommendation was also made by the House of Lords Children and Families Act 2014 Committee.  The previous Education Committee also acknowledged that “many kinship carers live in poverty, and many begin looking after a child in a time of crisis. The case for additional financial support for kinship carers, as well as ‘kinship leave’ on par with Adoption Leave must be reviewed”.

Our verdict

Kinship has been campaigning for a right to paid employment leave for kinship carers for more than a decade, and a new right to statutory pay and leave for kinship carers forms a key ask of our #ValueOurLove campaign.

Our most recent evidence from Making work pay for kinship carers reveals that the majority of kinship carers (3 in 4) are in work before they take on the role, but doing so pushes nearly half (45%) of them out of employment. This labour market withdrawal is typically permanent, with 8 in 10 kinship carers who left work never returning to paid employment. Economic inactivity amongst kinship carers is high compared to parents, but many kinship carers tell us that a right to paid employment leave would have enabled them to return to work at least in some capacity, supporting the government’s mission to boost labour market participation and productivity.

Previous research from Kinship has explored this forced and unnecessary withdrawal from employment often leads to significant financial hardship and poverty for kinship families, poor health and wellbeing for kinship carers, and reduced stability for children. It is vital for children entering kinship care to have a period of protected time with their new caregivers to settle in after immense trauma, separation and loss.

A lack of paid leave is also splitting up siblings: in our most recent 2024 annual survey of kinship carers, 17% of kinship carers said they had been unable to take on the care of a brother or sister to a kinship child already in their care, and more than half of this group said that a lack of paid employment leave and/or workplace support contributed to this.

Finally, it also has significant consequences for the state. An absence of support pushes many kinship carers into the benefits system: nearly half of working-age kinship carers (46%) are receiving Universal Credit and 28% of kinship carers had to claim benefits due to changes in their employment status after they took on their caring role. Prior to taking on the care of a child, kinship carers are also overrepresented in the health, education and social care sectors. As such, their withdrawal from the labour market is likely to be exacerbating significant workforce challenges in our schools, hospitals and communities.

Introducing kinship care leave would also align extremely well with other initiatives to support people with parental and caring responsibilities to remain in the workplace when they would like to, including flexible working provisions included within the Employment Rights Bill and the introduction of leave entitlements for other specific groups such as unpaid carers.

What should happen next?

The terms of reference for the government’s forthcoming review of the parental leave system must include an assessment of the value of introducing paid leave for kinship carers.

Ultimately, we want to see this review lead to the Department for Business and Trade and Department for Work and Pensions working closely with the Department for Education to introduce a statutory right to paid kinship care leave, at least on a par with adoption leave and pay. This should be fully supported at a cross-government level through the Cabinet Committee on the Future of Work.

A period of paid leave would not only allow carers to better support children and give them the time they need to settle into their new family environment, but would also create financial stability for kinship families and prevent carers from having to leave the labour market unnecessarily. It would also ensure vital nurses, teachers and support workers are kept active in our hospitals, schools and communities. Around one third (32%) of kinship carers said a similar right to paid leave as for adoptive parents would have enabled them to return to work as before, and a further 19% said it would have to some extent.

Family Network Pilots should include testing of how local authorities can support kinship carers with navigating changes to their employment, such as compensating for lost hours at work and helping with securing more flexible working arrangements. This will be particularly important for informal kinship carers who do not have a legal order securing their family arrangement and may not benefit directly from future statutory entitlements to paid leave.

At Kinship, we will continue our work engaging with employers to develop our Kinship Friendly Employer scheme and encourage organisations to adopt paid leave and other supportive policies ahead of potential future rights for kinship carers, Many kinship carers who might not benefit from a statutory paid leave policy on a par with adoption leave would still be well-served by greater understanding of and support with other workplace entitlements, including the option of shorter periods of leave, altered working hours or more flexible working arrangements.

Other governmental departments should follow the pioneering example of the Department for Education and introduce their own paid leave policies for their kinship carer employees and lead by example.