CYP Now - Allowing children to leave kinship care and enter the care system won’t just cost us money, it will be morally bankrupt

Today, on the first day of Kinship Care Week, Kinship has published new research indicating that more than 19,000 vulnerable children across England and Wales, currently being raised by relatives or family friends, are at immediate risk of entering the care system, as kinship carers struggle to cope without adequate financial support.

Dr Lucy Peake is chief executive of national charity Kinship. Picture: Kinship

Over a quarter of the 1,600 kinship carers surveyed for Kinship’s report, Breaking point: kinship carers in crisis, said they were ‘facing severe challenges’ or ‘at crisis point’, with 12 per cent reporting they may actually have to stop caring for their kinship child within the next year unless their circumstances change.

Unlike foster carers, most kinship carers do not receive a financial allowance from their local authority to provide for the child in their care. Those who do receive a monetary allowance are subject to a ‘postcode lottery’ of support payment amounts, as well as regular means-testing, which often penalises older carers for having pensions or savings pots.

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