Financial allowances pilot for kinship carers

• Kinship carers who have obtained an SGO for the child in public law proceedings or private law proceedings. 
• Kinship carers who have applied for an SGO through private law proceedings and have passed the first hearing dispute resolution appointment (FHDRA). 
• Kinship carers who have obtained a ‘lives with’ CAO for the child in public law proceedings. 
• Kinship carers who have obtained a ‘lives with’ CAO through private law proceedings – or who have applied for a ‘lives with’ CAO and have attended a FHDR meeting – where the interim or final ‘lives with CAO’ does not name a birth parent of the child subject to the Order and at least one of the following conditions apply to evidence the named child would be ‘otherwise in care’: 
  • immediately before the kinship arrangement the child was ‘looked after’ by a local authority (for example via an interim care order or under section 20 of the Children Act 1989). 
  • immediately before the kinship arrangement the child was, or is still, under a child protection plan. 
  • the family court noted safeguarding concerns arising from the contents of a welfare report during private law proceedings. 
  • a Family Group Decision Making meeting was convened and a decision was taken for the child to live full-time with a named kinship carer; which is now happening. 
  • both parents of the child are dead; but before they died, at least one of them was caring for and living with the child. 
  • the child was abandoned by either or both of their parents and at least one of them was previously caring for and living with the child immediately before abandoning the child. 
  • either one or both parents of the child are imprisoned but immediately prior to that, the parent/s were previously caring for and living with the child. 
  • either one or both parents have been detained in hospital pursuant to the Mental Health Act 1983 but they were previously caring for and living with the child immediately prior to being detained. 

The government have said, “The 7 local authorities were selected following an expression of interest process held last June. The applicants that passed the criteria where then randomly selected by an algorithm. Together, the seven local authority areas offer a useful mix of geography, demographics, and service models. This was intentional as the pilot is designed to test what works at scale in varied local contexts, so robust learning can be generated for future decisions. 

As the programme is a time‑limited test‑and‑learn pilot, the aim was not to create a national offer but to select a set of areas whose data would collectively produce a robust evidence base. Lessons will be published and used to inform future policy decisions. You can find more information about the Expression of Interest process here: Kinship Allowance Pilot – GOV-UK Find a grant.”

The government have previously said that, where eligible kinship carers are continuing to receive ongoing financial support from the local authority where their child was previously looked after and that local authority is participating in the pilot, the local authority is expected to continue providing financial support for the duration of the pilot regardless of where the kinship family may currently live. 

This applies even in circumstances where ongoing financial support was due to end, including where a local authority would typically have ceased providing financial support after 2 or 3 years following a special guardianship order being made. This means that eligible kinship carers supported by participating local authorities may continue to receive ongoing financial support for longer than expected. For the purposes of the pilot and in order to ensure robust evaluation, participating local authorities will be asked to retain responsibility for supporting special guardianship families where the child was previously looked after beyond the 3 years outlined in special guardianship statutory guidance. 

Eligible kinship carers living in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland can be supported through the pilot if the child they care for was previously looked after by a local authority in England and they are participating in the pilot.

We’re seeking further confirmation on this point and will update this page as soon as possible.

If you are eligible to claim a financial allowance under the pilot, you are under no obligation to take the allowance. Eligible carers will be able to choose whether to make a claim to receive the allowance or not. 

The DfE wants to understand the impact of improving financial support for kinship carers and to establish if this helps to minimise the risk of kinship placement breakdown, enables kinship families to consider arrangements outside of the care system, and subsequently alleviated cost pressures on local authorities. 

The impact of the pilot on local authorities, kinship carers and children in their care will be independently evaluated by Foundations – the What Works centre for Children & Families. Decisions about future rollout will be informed by the findings of the evaluation. We are seeking clarity on when future funding decisions will be made.

Eligible kinship carers do not need to complete training to access the allowance.