Tag Archives: kinship care

The Independent View: Kinship Carers in the Spotlight: A Call for Continued Commitment and Support

By Dr Lucy Peake | Mon 5th August 2024 - 2:26 pm

Kinship carers play a vital role in our society, providing loving, stable homes for more than 141,000 children in England and Wales whose parents are not able to care for them.

Grandparents, aunts, uncles, older siblings, other relatives and family friends step up, often at a point of crisis and in very challenging circumstances, to prevent children from entering the care system.

Despite their critical contribution to the lives of many, kinship carers have been overlooked by successive governments. As a result, most kinship families receive little to no support, and according to our research, many are at breaking point. Nearly 1 in 8 told us a lack of financial support and help with their children’s needs meant they were concerned about their ability to continue caring for their children in the next year if their situations didn’t improve. This could mean devastating consequences for children, families and the state.

The previous Government’s National Kinship Care Strategy (December 2023) finally gave kinship families some recognition, but the ‘radical reset’ proposed by the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care has yet to be delivered.

Kinship carers and the children they are raising need security and support as a matter of urgency.

2024: turning the tide?

This summer has been a watershed moment. For the first time, kinship care was mentioned in the manifestos of England’s three leading political parties. Tireless campaigning over many decades by kinship carers – themselves already overstretched by the challenges of caring for children with little support – has got us to this point.

And they’ve had some welcome help.

In recent years, Liberal Democrats have stepped up to bring the experiences of kinship carers and the case for greater support for kinship families directly to Westminster.

Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged bobby dean and ed davey | Leave a comment

Chamberlain’s Carer’s Leave Bill closer to becoming law

By The Voice | Sat 4th February 2023 - 4:00 pm

On Thursday, a private member’s bill promoted by Wendy Chamberlain, MP for North East Fife passed its third reading without opposition and now goes to the Lords. As the Conservatives do not oppose the bill, it is set to become law.

Chamberlain said the new employment rights in the bill are vital at a time when the Government are trying to get people, especially the over-50s, back to work. The bill creates a new entitlement for employees to take up to a week of unpaid leave a year in order to provide or arrange care for a dependant with a long-term care need.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged care, featured and wendy chamberlain mp | 1 Comment

Ed Davey on kinship care and his experience

By The Voice | Thu 2nd February 2023 - 8:57 am

Ed Davey spoke to Jason Farrell, Sky News’ home editor about his own experience of kinship caring. Ed explained his grandparent’s involvement in his own upbringing and how his maternal grandfather and mother were critical to looking after him after the death of this father when he was just four. Ed spoke movingly, at times tearfully, about his mother’s illness and how that created strain between his mother and grandmother. When his mother died 11 years later, his grandparents looked after him full-time while living with the loss of their only child. Kinship care, where grandparents are supported and encouraged in looking after grandchildren alongside foster or adoptive parents, is the best form of care he says.