Valuing Family and Friends Care for Children
The Kinship Care Alliance – Who Are We?
We are made up of a group of organisations which subscribe to a set of shared aims and beliefs on the issue of family and friends care. We meet regularly to develop a joint policy agenda and agree strategies to promote our aims. The aims of the Kinship Care Alliance are to:
- Prevent children from being unnecessarily raised outside the family
- Enhance outcomes for children who cannot live with their parents and who are living with relatives
- Secure improved recognition and support for family and friends carers.
Read more about the Kinship Care Alliance
Parliamentary working group on family and friends care
We are setting up a cross party parliamentary working group of peers and MPs with an interest in family and friends care. The aim is to increase awareness about, and support for, children in family and friends care, and to highlight the importance of this option for children who cannot live with their parents.
To act:
• Please get in touch with your local MP and encourage them to join the working group;
• MPs and peers please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to find out more about the group or to join up.
To find out more contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Kinship Care Alliance's latest briefings and campaigns
E-campaign, February 2012
Grandparents Plus on behalf of the Kinship Care Alliance has launched an e-campaign to encourage councils to give better support to family and friends carers
http://www.grandparentsplus.org.uk/councils-action. At a click you can e-lobby your local authority to encourage
a) them to comply with statutory guidance and publish a family and friends care policy, if they haven’t done so
already
b) them, if they have a policy, to implement it.
Kinship Care Alliance: Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, November 2011
The Kinship Care Alliance has serious concerns about the legal aid bill that is currently going through Parliament. We fear it could result in impoverished relatives, such as grandparents not getting legal aid to cover the costs and court fees of applying for a permanent legal order so that their grandchild, who is at risk, can be live with them. We fear, that unless Ministers address such concerns, more children could end up at suffering abuse or in the care system, at greater cost to the child’s wellbeing and the public purse.
The briefing summarises the latest research on family and friends care and the legal and support framework including new requirements on English local authorities towards family and friends carers and the children they are raising. It sets out recommendations and suggestions for both local authorities and Government.
Support amendments to the Welfare Reform Bill
The Kinship Care Alliance has significant concerns that the Welfare Reform Bill will have a negative impact on the lives of many family and friends carers and the children they are raising. We fear proposals in the Bill will make it financially impossible for some relatives to step forward to take on children who would otherwise be in care, at a significantly greater cost to the taxpayer and against the child's best wishes.
Read further about our concerns and suggested amendments and how you can help.
Lobbying for safe arrangements for children of parents in custody
Members of the Kinship Care Alliance have expressed concern about the arrangements for children when their parents are imprisoned. We wrote to Government Ministers calling for:
- a statutory obligation on judges to enquire whether safe arrangements have been made for children when parents/carers are remanded to custody; and
- that this is backed up by a process enabling the court to refer to Children's Services, where necessary, to protect and support the welfare of the child.
Read the letter sent to Rt Hon Ken Clarke MP, Secretary of State for Justice, August 2011
The response from the Ministry of Justice, September 2011
The Kinship Care Alliance's submission to the Department of Education's consultation on the closure of the Education Maintenance Allowance, May 2011
We deeply regret the Government's decision to abolish Education Maintenance Allowance. This short submission focuses on ensuring that children being raised in family and friends care are considered within any subsequent bursary scheme.
The Kinship Care Alliance’s Manifesto on raising children within the wider family as an alternative to care
Prior to the 2010 general election the Kinship Care Alliance asked politicians to commit to the recommendations set out in this manifesto which will:
- Enable more children who are in the care system to live safely and securely with their wider family.
- Assist many children who are currently being raised by impoverished relatives.
At a time when there is a chronic shortage of foster carers and care proceedings are at record numbers, the proposals in this manifesto make sense both in terms of outcomes for very vulnerable children and cost effectiveness. If they lead even to a reduction of 5% in the care population, it could reduce expenditure on the care system in England and Wales by over £100 million per annum, which could be very effectively reinvested at local and national level to develop and improve support to children in family and friends care arrangements.
There are no official statistics on the numbers of children who are not able to live with parents and are being raised by family and friends carers, but it is estimated that 200-300,000 children are living with grandparents or other wider family members or friends. This may be because of parental mental or physical ill health, domestic abuse, divorce or separation, alcohol or substance misuse, imprisonment or bereavement.
Key facts
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• Children raised by family and friends carers feel loved and secure and report high levels of satisfaction; • Family and friends placements offer more stability than unrelated care; • Family and friends carers show a high level of commitment; • The children have experienced similar adversities to those in the care system but they and their carers received much less support; • Many family and friends carers live in impoverished circumstances, which impacts on the children, for example: - 3 out 4 of such carers experience severe financial hardship; - 35% of such carers left or lost their job or took early retirement to raise the children. “I lost my job as a direct result of having time off to attend court, care for the baby and attend his hospital appointments etc. My husband took redundancy and we had to sell our home and most of the furniture in order to pay the legal costs and fund a move of over 350 miles away to ensure the safety of our grandson...” • Many such carers face crippling legal costs to secure the child’s future; • 1 in 4 are lone carers; • 1 in 3 live in overcrowded conditions; • 3 out of 10 family and friends care have a chronic illness or disability; • 69% of English and Welsh local authorities did not have a consistent approach to family and friends care in 2009; • 8 out 10 people agree that family and friends carers should receive financial support. |
Read further about recommendations in the Manifesto.
Find out who has pledged to the Kinship Care Alliance manifesto.
