Kinship’s #ValueOurLove campaign urges government to support carers

This instinctive and selfless reaction to protect their own flesh and blood has kept thousands of children within safe, secure and loving families, and out of an overstretched care system.   

All the evidence shows that remaining within a stable family network gives children a sense of belonging and leads to better outcomes and futures. However, bringing up a child without any support can come at an enormous financial and personal cost.  

Lives are turned upside down and huge sacrifices made as these incredible kinship carers are often forced to shelve retirement plans, give up jobs, sell homes, or delay having their own children.  

Instead of being recognised and supported for the care and love they give, they have been overlooked and undervalued simply because they are family.  

Although kinship carers look after more than 162,000 children in England and Wales, more than double the number growing up in foster care, they do not receive the same support with the costs of raising a child, or the emotional and practical help.  

We knew that kinship carers were struggling before the cost-of-living crisis but our new Cost of Loving annual survey of 1500 carers in England and Wales shows many have now reached breaking point.   

Eight in 10 kinship carers tell us they are failing to receive the crucial support they desperately need. Without it, nearly four in 10 now fear they may no longer be able to care for the children they love, risking thousands entering the care system. That would be a tragedy for thousands of children and a tragedy the Government simply cannot allow to happen. 

But as the financial crisis grips, many kinship families are telling us they will go cold and hungry this winter because they can’t afford to heat their homes or buy essential groceries.  

Four in 10 (40%) are now skipping meals, using food banks and buying less food and nearly 6 in 10 (59%) say they will not put the heating on this winter, and 26% say they won’t be able to pay their bills.  

That’s why Kinship is launching a major campaign this week mobilising kinship carers and the public across England to lobby their MPs for better support for kinship carers. 

Kinship’s new #ValueOurLove campaign is urging politicians to sign a petition calling on the government to provide immediate support for kinship carers and push forward with implementing recommendations from the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.  

The government must take urgent action to help kinship carers like 69-year-old Wendy, from East Sussex, who has raised her two grandchildren, now aged 15 and 10, since they were babies and relies on her state pension to care for her kinship family.  

Wendy tells us she’s worried sick about her family. Her energy bills have doubled and she relies on her local community fridge – food which supermarkets would otherwise throw away – for groceries.  

Wendy told us: “Life is unrecognisable for the children now. I can’t even afford small treats like ice cream anymore for the children because I have to count every single penny.”  

Kinship carers are trying their best to keep families together but they have to fight tooth and claw for any kind of help given the current postcode lottery of support.  

Unlike foster carers, being a kinship carer is not a considered choice; it is done through love, often in times of crisis.  But from the moment a relative becomes a kinship carer they are left to muddle through on their own.  Even though many children in kinship care have experienced trauma and loss, they do not receive the support they need to understand or manage their complex emotional and behavioural needs.  

It is time kinship carers and their children were treated fairly and politicians act to ensure they have the financial, practical and emotional support they need and deserve.  

The government has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform the lives of kinship carers when it responds to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care’s recommendations later this year and to work with the voluntary sector, local authorities and kinship carers themselves to develop an ambitious and long-overdue kinship care strategy.   

The review made several strong recommendations to boost support for kinship carers, including introducing financial allowances, extended access to legal aid, and securing paid leave from work when a kinship child first comes to live with them. The review concluded that investing in kinship care makes sense.  

Earlier this month politicians and local authorities joined the sector in celebrating the amazing roles that kinship carers play in children’s lives and our society, while also saving the public purse millions.  

Now it’s time that the government recognises the value of their love, by properly prioritising kinship care and funding cash-strapped local authorities to provide the support kinship carers so desperately need.  

Dr Lucy Peake is chief executive of Kinship