Taskforce calls to prioritise kinship carers

Kinship care is a widely unrecognised, underappreciated and often poorly supported, says the first cross-party parliamentary taskforce on kinship care.

It states that local authorities are “not consistently exploring potential kinship care placements as a realistic option” despite 152,190 children in England living with kinship carers compared with 56,160 living in foster care and 2,190 placed for adoption.

“Having that familial connection is an important part of a child’s sense of identity and a feeling of belonging somewhere,” says Catherine McKinnell, MP for Newcastle North and chair of the taskforce.

Yet, the taskforce’s report states that kinship care placements are often organised “late in the day and rushed”.

IN NUMBERS

152,190 children in England living with kinship carers
2.5x more children live in kinship care than foster care
1 in 37 black children were in kinship care

Source: Children in care in England, DfE, 2018/19; *2011 census​

Risk-averse approach

A lack of financial and legal support for some kinship carers and a risk-averse approach by local authorities are cited as just some of the reasons kinship care is overlooked despite emotional, behavioural and educational outcomes for children being “at least as good as those in unrelated foster placements”.

“Currently, the focus is all wrong,” says McKinnell. “We need to see a much stronger focus on the needs of children and outcomes.”

The report also highlights regional variation between local authorities in the proportion of children in care who are being raised by kinship carers.

In the East of England, just eight per cent of looked-after children were raised by kinship carers on 31 March 2019 compared with 18 per cent in Yorkshire and Humber, according to Department for Education figures.

McKinnell puts this down to a lack of guidance for authorities on placing children in kinship care as well as a lack of funding despite such placements offering a “lower cost option, even with better support provided for carers than is currently available”.

Cathy Ashley, chief executive of Family Rights Group, which supported the inquiry, adds that councils may be “too risk-averse” to place children with family members such as siblings or cousins.

“Often if a placement seems a little risky – maybe that person has been in a bit of trouble themselves or is not in the most stable job – they will be written off straight away,” she explains.

“Safeguarding measures are in place for a reason but sometimes taking a risk-approach will pay off for the child.”

Ashley also says that the support carers can access is dependent on where they live, any legal order they may have, and whether or not the child has been in the care system first. “The child’s and the carer’s needs are at the bottom of the list,” she adds.

Kinship households are more likely to be located in less affluent areas with kinship carers likely to be living on a lower income than the general population of parents and unrelated foster carers, the report states.

Greater priority

The taskforce lays out key recommendations for both local and national government to ensure keeping children in family networks is a priority for children’s social care services.

It is calling on the government to introduce a new bill to tackle regional variation in the ways authorities identify and support kinship carers. This would “also be a clear demonstration that parliament and the government recognise the challenges faced by kinship carers and value their vital role in keeping families together”.

The report also recommends that legislation should be introduced forcing all authorities to pursue family options as a “first port of call”.

“To make sure practice is consistent across all local authorities, national government should consider introducing new legal duties on local authorities to ensure that potential placements with kinship carers are explored early and that all families are offered the opportunity to have a family group conference before a child enters the care system, unless there is an emergency,” the report states.

Carers and kin children should also be afforded the same benefits and support services as foster carers and children, the taskforce adds. This includes access to funding including the Adoption Support Fund and Pupil Premium Plus as well as educational support from the likes of virtual school heads and the National Tutoring Programme.

Without such changes being made “this crucial third pillar of the children’s social care system will remain an afterthought”, McKinnell concludes.

KINSHIP CARE LEGAL STATUS DETERMINES LEVEL OF SUPPORT

Kinship carer Katie describes receiving “absolutely no support” with her first kinship child.

“We received a call from the hospital saying he either came home with us or was taken into care. Because that was classed by a local authority as a private arrangement we weren’t entitled to any support other than three hours of free legal advice. We had to represent ourselves in court,” she says.

However, for a second kinship child who was placed in unrelated foster care before the option of kinship care was explored and a third child about whom the arrangement was made through the local authority before their birth, Katie receives full financial support.

“I think one of the main barriers we have faced is the legal status,” she says, “because my first child wasn’t taken into care; he receives no support despite having much more complex issues that the other two. It’s not fair to decide what a child is entitled to based on his legal status.”