Kinship carers 'consider giving up role' amid financial challenges

A survey of 1,600 carers by charity Kinship finds that 12 per cent of those asked said they were uncertain about their future ability to care for their kinship child or children due to a lack of financial support as well as difficulties getting their child the mental health support they need.

The results of the survey are included in Kinship’s latest report Breaking point: kinship carers in crisis, which has been published to mark Kinship Care Week (2-8 October).

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It adds that more than a quarter of kinship carers surveyed said they are “facing severe challenges” or “at crisis point,” while one in 10 said their household had run out of food within the previous two weeks, and they couldn’t afford to buy more.

There are more than 162,000 children being raised in kinship care in England and Wales, twice the number in foster care, according to Kinship.

The charity is warning that more than 19,000 vulnerable children across England and Wales, who are currently being raised by relatives or family friends because they are unable to live with their parents, are at immediate risk of entering the care system as kinship carers struggle to cope without adequate financial support.

Its report also finds that one in five kinship carers said they had been unable to take in the sibling of a child already in their care, because of circumstances such as a lack of space or financial worries.

The research comes after a coalition of voluntary adoption agencies published guidance encouraging potential adopters to consider adopting sibling groups.

Dr Lucy Peake, chief executive of Kinship, said: “Pushing this group of children into the care system is wholly avoidable. In fact, according to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, investing in non-means-tested financial support for kinship carers, on a par with fostering allowances, will start saving the public purse significant amounts of money within just a few years.

“Kinship is urging the government to equalise support for kinship and foster families in its National Kinship Care Strategy, and to roll this out as a matter of urgency, before any more children are pushed into the care system as the only way to secure the support they need.”

In May 2022, the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care recommended that the government introduce a mandatory financial allowance for all kinship carers with a special guardianship order or child arrangement order, where the child would otherwise be in care.

Responding to the recommendation in February, the government’s Stable Homes, Built on Love strategy said it would “explore the case” for implementing this and committed to providing an update in a dedicated National Kinship Care Strategy before the end of 2023.