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.
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)
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Current status
Following a commitment made in the National Kinship Care Strategy, the remit of Virtual School Heads (VSHs) now includes, as of September 2024, children in kinship care. This extension is twofold and outlined in new 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, the Virtual Schools specific responsibilities to providing advice and information are now extended to special guardians and those with child arrangements order regardless of whether or not the child was in care.
Further to this, the Government confirmed in its policy paper Keeping children safe, helping families thrive in November 2024 that future legislative changes would put the extension to kinship children on a statutory footing, and this was subsequently confirmed as part of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill introduced in Parliament in December 2024. The Bill includes no further provisions for improving educational support for children in kinship 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.
Our verdict
We welcome the extension of Virtual School Head 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 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, it’s disappointing that the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill does not include any further steps to improve access to educational support for children in kinship care, such as extending eligibility for Pupil Premium Plus or considering the role of the designated teacher. Children in kinship care have not featured prominently in kinship care reform to date; neither the Stable Homes, Built on Love strategy nor the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care considered what needed to change for kinship children directly, and government action has been catching up ever since. This is despite 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 children the support they need and deserve.
What should happen next
The UK Government should harmonise the existing patchwork of support for kinship children in England 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, 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. Priority school admissions should be extended to all children in kinship care, and further and higher education providers should extend support to those with experience of kinship care. Further detail on our recommendations for improving educational support for children in kinship care can be found in our Forgotten report.
Further research must be undertaken to better understand children in kinship care and their carers’ views on the support they would like 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 support across health and education, 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.
Continued engagement must also include listening and acting on the views of children growing up in kinship care; their perspectives and views are far less well understood and evidenced in the literature than for other groups supported by children’s social care, despite some limited examples of welcome research.
Related content
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.