Children in kinship care have been overlooked. Our report explores insights from our 2023 survey to understand how we can improve support for kinship children in England and Wales across education, SEND/ALN, mental health and family relationships.
Educational support for kinship children
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.
Slow progress
Previous status: No progress (December 2023)
On this page
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What’s happening now?
The government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill seeks to put on a statutory footing an existing extension of virtual school head (VSH) support to a wider group of kinship children which commenced in September 2024.
Beyond this, the Bill contains no further provisions for improving educational support for children in kinship care. Amendments were tabled by Munira Wilson MP at both committee and report stage to extend priority school admissions and eligibility for pupil premium plus to all children in kinship care. Responding in committee, the government said they “do not consider it necessary at this time to extend the existing priority for looked-after and previously looked-after children in England to include all children in kinship care” given existing protections, and that there were “no plans to change the pupil premium eligibility at present… given how “schools can direct funding where the need is greatest, including to pupils with other identified needs, such as children in kinship care”.
What’s happened previously?
The extension of Virtual School Head support comes following a commitment made in the National Kinship Care Strategy in December 2023. This extension is twofold and outlined in guidance published in March 2024:
- as part of their existing responsibilities, VSHs are encouraged to champion the educational attendance, attainment and progress of all children in kinship care, regardless of arrangement; and
- supported by £3.8 million investment over 2024-5, Virtual Schools Heads’ specific responsibilities to provide advice and information on request are now extended to special guardians and those with child arrangements order regardless of whether or not the child was in care.
The National Kinship Care Strategy also noted ongoing work to update national standards and statutory guidance for the provision of children’s advocacy services to consider eligible children and young people in kinship care (e.g. looked after children or children in need) to help them understand their rights and entitlements. The government is yet to respond to the consultation.
Our verdict
We welcome the extension of VSH support to a wider group of children in kinship care and legislation which puts this on a statutory footing. This should create new opportunities for improved understanding of and support for kinship children in education, and we look forward to continuing our work with the National Association of Virtual School Heads (NAVSH) to ensure this expansion makes a difference for newly-eligible kinship families.
However, the impact of this extension will be significantly limited by the accompanying lack of tools and funding available to support the virtual school head, particularly given that only currently or previously looked after children are eligible for pupil premium plus and those who have not previously spent time in local authority are absent from statutory data collection on educational outcomes. Despite being recognised on a statutory footing alongside other groups of children supported by the virtual school head, these differences will make it comparably much harder for VSHs to identify, reach out, support and evaluate the impact of their work with kinship children.
It is disappointing that the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill does not include any further steps to improve educational support for all children in kinship care, such as extending eligibility for pupil premium plus or priority school admissions. Current support continues to undermine the common needs and experiences across children in all types of kinship care, instead carving them into discrete groups based on the type of arrangement and their journey into kinship care.
The Department for Education should move away from further stepped extensions accompanied by annual grant funding and instead consider the support which kinship children as a whole cohort would most benefit from, recognising our evidence showing how their educational needs and experiences of trauma, separation and loss are typically very similar to those who enter local authority care, and the gaps in current support which continue to unfairly deny kinship children the support they need and deserve.
What should happen next?
The government should harmonise the existing patchwork of support for kinship children and introduce new legislation which guarantees equalised levels of support between children in all forms of kinship care and children looked after in local authority care. This should involve coordinating duties and remits across the triangle of support available through the Virtual School, pupil premium plus and the designated teacher, providing a clear, cohesive and comprehensive offer to all kinship families.
In the interim, the unique needs, experiences and strengths of kinship children should be considered in delivery of virtual school head, pupil premium plus, designated teacher and personal education plan support to all of those eligible. Additional steps should be taken to ensure all eligible families of previously looked after children in kinship care are aware of the self-declaration process for pupil premium plus in order to maximise take-up.
Priority school admissions should be extended to all children in kinship care, and further and higher education providers should extend relevant support offered to care-experienced students to those with experience of kinship care too. Future reform to the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system should also consider the elevated prevalence of SEND amongst kinship children similar to those in other social care groups, but their comparable lack of formalised support through education, health and care (EHC) plans.
Further research must be undertaken to better understand children in kinship care’s views on the educational support they would most benefit from and how this can be best offered, conscious of the unique position of kinship care and the perspectives of children on their identities and family life. Whilst the evidence suggests that many children in kinship care would benefit from improved access to educational support, the complex routes in and through kinship care – and the impact this has on children’s identity and families’ relationships with the local authority and other services – may not warrant an identical approach to provision and oversight as with other groups.
Further detail on our recommendations for improving educational support for children in kinship care can be found in our Forgotten report.
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Only 54% of children in kinship care are getting the support they need in education
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47% of kinship children have a special educational need or disability
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31% of children in kinship care have diagnosed or suspected social, emotional and mental health needs
Pupil premium plus is special funding for schools in England to promote the education of pupils who are or have been in the care of children’s services.
Kinship’s new report Forgotten: Support for kinship children’s education and mental health highlights that children in kinship care are often suffering from life-changing trauma with no support.
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.