Family Rights Group is launching a new kinship care campaign: Time to Define

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Family Rights Group is launching a new kinship care campaign: Time to Define – a proposal for a clear and simple legal framework for kinship care.

We are proposing a universal definition of kinship care be written into primary legislation which would encompass the different types of kinship care arrangement. Meeting the definition would then automatically passport kinship carers and their children to entitlement to a minimum level of support and services.

“Without an agreed definition, kinship carers can quickly run into a myriad of confusion and misunderstanding” says Family Rights Group’s Principal Legal Adviser, Caroline Lynch. “At the very moment when the child they are caring for needs stability and support, kinship carers find they are having to constantly explain who they are and what they need.”

The proposal has been informed by the views of thousands of kinship carers including members of our kinship carers panel and those who contact our specialist national advice service every year. It has also been influenced by research, and the policy and practice insights of Family Rights Group and other members of the Kinship Care Alliance. We are grateful to all who have influenced the thinking behind these proposals.

We encourage you to get involved and publicly back the Time to Define Kinship Care campaign.
How you can help
• Share the proposal on social media using the hashtag #TimeToDefine and tag us in @familyrightsgp.
• Endorse the campaign by completing the form on our website here
• Write to your Member of Parliament or your local lead councillor for children’s services and ask them to support the campaign. You can find out who your MP is using your postcode here.