18th May – National Children’s Day
Fans of BBC TV show Gladiators will have heard one of this year’s winners, Joe Fishburn, talking about his experiences growing up in kinship care. Joe, 24, was raised by his grandmother – and since winning the show, has been helping to raise public awareness of kinship care by becoming an Ambassador for national charity Kinship and sharing his story.
‘Kinship care’ is an umbrella term for anyone who looks after the child of a family member or friend – they might be grandparents, aunts, uncles, older siblings or a close family friend. Centre for Care research uses Census data to estimate that there are over 132,000 children living in kinship care arrangements in England – without someone stepping up to care for them, many of these children would otherwise be placed in a struggling care system (e.g. in foster or residential care).
Through this research, we wanted to highlight the profound – and often invisible – contribution of kinship carers to society, so we calculated the economic value of their support, by looking at the cost of caring for a child in alternative foster care for every local authority in England. This comes to a staggering £4.3 billion a year.
Slow progress on trial of kinship financial allowance
However, many kinship carers are struggling with the costs of raising a child, and as many as 1 in 8 are facing the real possibility that they will be unable to continue doing so, often due to a lack of financial support. Unlike children in foster families, most kinship families receive little or no financial, practical or emotional support, pushing many to breaking point.
So it was very welcome when, in her Autumn Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that the Government will trial a financial allowance for kinship carers in up to 10 local authorities. However, since then, the Government has not shared any further information about how this trial will work, which kinship carers will be eligible, or where it will run. There has also been worrying parallel news, with Bridget Phillipson MP, Education Secretary, announcing reductions to the Adoption and Special Guardianship Fund, which helps to provide therapeutic support for some eligible kinship families.
Promising local practice
In the meantime, there is more promising practice emerging at a local level as some local authorities lead the way by strengthening the financial support they offer to kinship carers. In April, Sheffield City Council introduced a new kinship maintenance allowance, which will benefit approximately 850 kinship carers. Kinship carers will receive £170 a week for children aged up to four, rising in increments to £249 for young people aged 16 and 17. Our research found that 1,538 children are living in kinship care in the city, with kinship families in Sheffield contributing £50 million to society every year. We are delighted to see the city lead the way with this commitment, and hope that others follow suit.
Investing in financial allowances for kinship carers must be considered in the light of the high costs of kinship family breakdown, the cost of alternative foster care, and the lifelong outcomes of these vulnerable children. Kinship care can help to relieve pressure on overstretched local authority budgets. Previous research commissioned by Kinship has identified that, for every 100 children looked after in well supported kinship care rather than local authority care, the state saves £4 million per year and increases the lifetime earnings of those children by £2 million. However, the love of kinship families should not be taken for granted, nor seen as a cheap option. That’s why our report calls for all kinship carers to receive a financial allowance at least matching the minimum fostering allowance to help cover the costs of raising a child. This would help ensure financial barriers do not hinder families from pursuing the kinship arrangements best suited to their situation and reduce risks to permanence or family breakdown. The report calls on the Government to urgently confirm plans for the pilot of the kinship allowance, as well as how this will inform a subsequent wider roll-out across the country. The Government’s multi-year Spending Review should allocate the necessary funding to enable this.
Only by doing so can we maintain the wellbeing of the kinship carers we rely so heavily upon, and ensure the best possible outcomes for the children and young people they care for. Kinship carers can’t afford to wait.
About the author
Becky joined the Centre for Care in June 2022 as a Research Associate, working closely with Professor Sue Yeandle. Her role is to ensure that our research makes a difference to care policy, using our evidence to respond to parliamentary inquiries and government consultations across the four nations of the UK. This will include working closely with the team to gather evidence on critical and emerging issues in care, as well as synthesising the grey and academic literature and engaging with our partners in the care sector.
