Children who grow up in kinship care do better, yet the families taking on this role feel unsupported and ignored – this has to change

While most people have a basic understanding of the concepts of fostering and adoption, the world of children being looked after by someone other than their birth parents is a complicated one, which few of us would claim to understand. What’s surprising to many is how common it is for extended family members, or family friends, to take on the task of raising a child. Known as Kinship Care, this is in fact the most common way that children are cared for when their parents aren’t able to – with approximately three times as many children in kinship care as there are in fostering.

Sadly, the low level of public understanding is often mirrored in our public agencies, and kinship carers frequently find themselves feeling unsupported at best, and outright alienated or excluded at worst. This is despite the results of research showing vast benefits of kinship care. Children who grow up in kinship care are more likely to be kept with their siblings compared to those in foster care, have better social and emotional wellbeing and better long-term physical health, are more likely to have stable, permanent homes, achieve higher levels of employment later in life and are more likely to report that they feel loved.

The community of kinship carers and the charities that represent them, including Kinship Care UK, who are based in my constituency of Worcester, have a wide range of asks to government. Many of these are simply about putting kinship carers on a more even footing with other carers who look after children on behalf of the State (or in other words, all of us). Even though many kinship care arrangements are initiated by various authorities, kinship carers often subsequently feel undervalued and under-recognised by our systems. They miss out on financial support, employment rights and other types of support that they would have received had they not been in some way connected to the child before taking on guardianship.

But the challenges faced by kinship carers go further. The various forms of legal arrangement that establish kinship guardianship aren’t recorded by courts or on any Government system, but instead live as individual A4 paper artefacts with mysterious acronyms, like SGO (Special Guardianship Order), or CAO (Child Arrangement Order). Kinship carers are often required by hospitals, schools, doctors, and dentists to demonstrate that they have parental responsibility. Many find it impractical (and nerve-wracking!) to carry these documents around with them, but then find themselves struggling to access urgent or emergency care for their children. Often, even when they can present the relevant piece of paper, health or education professionals don’t feel confident validating them, and Children’s Services departments get called upon to root out a social worker who can vouch for the guardians.

We all know that family situations can be incredibly complicated, and having to tell their story over and over is wearing for kinship carers, and can be outright traumatising for the children they care for. Best practice in trauma-informed working would tell us that these families should only ever have to tell their story once. So how might we change the situation so that these families are supported and understood, rather than being unintentionally marginalised and mistreated?

Undoubtedly, a big part of the solution will be education and culture change. One way to begin this journey would be to make kinship care arrangements the first choice for Children’s Services departments, rather than a lucky product of chance. In much of the UK, councils have been under no obligation to ensure that potential kinship placements are explored and assessed for suitability before children become looked-after. Making kinship care the explicit preferred norm for children who cannot stay with their parents might be a good first step.

I recently led a House of Commons debate on support for kinship carers. I am delighted that the Minister, Josh MacAlister immediately responded with a promise to implement that obligation in law straight away. He also announced a trial to explore offering kinship carers financial support on a level with some foster carers. These are excellent first steps, but there is much more to be done to build a healthy relationship between the state and kinship carers. The Minister also promised to work with me, other relevant Government departments and charities to find a solution to the ID challenges kinship carers regularly face.

These are very positive signals from a government that is prioritising families and children in a wide range of its policies. But the fundamental point is clear. We will have succeeded when kinship families feel seen, valued, understood and supported by our society, and that’s something in which each and every one of us can play a part.