Information, training and support for kinship carers

Current status

In Stable Homes, Built on Love, the previous Government committed to investing in the delivery of a national offer of support and training for all kinship carers. After a competitive tender process, Kinship was awarded a contract, worth £3m, by the Department for Education, to develop an information, training and support programme for all kinship carers in England. We are now delivering the national Training and Support Service until March 2025, with the possibility of extension until March 2027.

The National Kinship Care Strategy also celebrated Kinship’s work to establish more than 150 peer support groups across England and the role of the groups in building community and relationships for kinship carers. Funding has been awarded to Kinship to continue building peer support groups through the National Peer Support Service, available to all types of kinship carer, across the country until at least March 2026.

There are some signals that kinship carers’ experiences with local authority support and information provision is improving, albeit from a low base. Kinship carers in 2024 were 8pp more likely to rate the support received by their local authority as excellent or good than in 2023, and 7pp less likely to say it was poor or very poor. Similarly, kinship carers in 2024 were nearly 6pp more likely to say that the provision of information from their local authority was excellent or good than in 2023, and nearly 8pp less likely to say it was poor or very poor. However, this still means that nearly half of kinship carers (47%) rate the information provided by their local authority about kinship care as poor or very poor.

The Department for Education also funds the Family and Friends helpline.

Our verdict

The previous Government’s commitment to fund a national training and support offer reflected a significant win for our #ValueOurLove campaign which continues to call for equalised access to high-quality training and support between kinship carers and foster carers. It also followed a recommendation from the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care that all local authorities should develop peer support and training for all kinship carers.

Delivery of a national offer of training, advice and information should help to deliver consistent and high-quality help for kinship carers of all types, and reduce the current postcode lottery of provision. This is crucial as only 2 in 10 kinship carers told us in our 2022 annual survey that they’d received any preparation support before or shortly after their child moved in, and nearly 8 in 10 said they weren’t getting the local authority support they needed to meet their child’s needs.

A lack of independent advice, especially at the point of becoming a kinship carer, can leave kinship carers vulnerable to being exploited and unsure about the best option for them to pursue to support their new family. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has highlighted previously how special guardians were sometimes given incorrect advice and information by their local authorities.

A third of kinship carers rate the information provided about kinship care by their local authority as ‘very poor’, and last year only 7% told us they had ever seen their authority’s family and friends care policy. It’s welcome that new statutory guidance on kinship care will reinforce the requirement for local authorities to publish a clear and accessible approach to how they support all kinship families. This is important as, highlighted by Foundations in their recent survey of local authority support, “kinship carers may commit to care arrangements that limit their access to support without being aware of these implications”.

What should happen next

All local authorities should ensure they provide up-to-date, accessible and visible information about the support available to kinship families of all types, including signposting to support from Kinship such as our national offer of training and support and Kinship Compass – our tool to help kinship carers discover the support available to them locally, including support groups, events and workshops, free legal clinics and food banks.

Forthcoming kinship care statutory guidance for England should reaffirm the requirement for local authorities to publish a specific family and friends care (kinship) policy and a clear, joined-up local offer of support. This should recognise the diversity of kinship families and the need for some services to be attuned to specific cohorts (e.g. young kinship carers or those from minoritised communities). The new National Kinship Care Ambassador should support and challenge local authorities to deliver this.

All kinship carers should be offered free and independent advice from the moment they are considering becoming kinship carers and throughout their journey. This should include guidance on the different kinship care arrangements and their implications for access to support, and ensure kinship carers receive the welfare benefits they are entitled to given their particular family arrangements.