Kinship Care Strategy

The LGA welcomes investment in training and support for all kinship carers, and hope that the lessons learnt from piloting Family Network Support Packages will be swiftly shared, along with necessary funding to implement changes, so that children and carers across the country can benefit as soon as possible.

It will be important for the national kinship strategy to also recognise the role of partners in supporting kinship arrangements. This includes mental health support for both children and adults who may have experienced significant trauma prior to and during the set up of kinship arrangements, and support from the prison and probation service where carers are providing homes to children where parents are in custody or have been recently released.

The Stable Homes consultation document highlighted the use of Family Network Support Plans and family group decision-making as key elements in prioritising family-led solutions. Some councils have highlighted the challenge in continuing to deliver family group decision-making and other interventions in a context of increasing demand and long-term funding pressures. To embed a family first culture, teams will need to be able to access and offer the right interventions, and be reassured that this is a long-term approach rather than a time-limited intervention.

Ofsted will have an important role to play in enabling councils to embed a family first culture. Teams will need to be reassured that Ofsted is open to support being delivered in different ways if that is what is best for a family, while inspection can helpfully support a shift in practice to focus on a “family first” approach.

In 2016 the LGA commissioned Isos Partnership to carry out research into improvement in children’s social care. The report, Action research into improvement in local children's services, outlined the importance of culture and offered lessons on how to shape this, including “developing the long-term strategic direction, a clear approach to delivering high-quality frontline practice, workforce development, and set of organisational values and behaviour.” The report also emphasises the importance of ensuring staff feel trusted and supported in what are often high stakes roles that expose them to risks; ensuring staff feel safe in their roles will support in the embedding of a “family first” culture.

In 2022, Isos Partnership carried out a further study for the LGA considering structural change in children’s social care. This emphasised that in any change programme, leadership and vision are key. It will be important for the DfE to clearly articulate its vision for a “family first” culture, including through the National Framework, and to ensure that local leaders have the flexibility to translate this into a vision that makes sense in place. Communication, engagement and co-production are also important building blocks of culture.

These are lessons that should be considered by both central and local government in a holistic way; for example, DfE and children’s social care can work towards a family first culture, however this must also be supported by local and national approaches to issues such as housing and welfare that have a significant impact on families’ ability to parent well.

The most helpful form of support for a family network will be the support that meets their individual needs, and it must be able to change over time. Councils and those working with families must therefore be able to offer flexibility in support, recognising that for some families this will be a one-time intervention and for others it may be long-term.

Research by the charity Kinship outlines a range of support that kinship carers have stated would be helpful:

• Support to diagnose and meet children’s health, educational and behavioural support needs
• Financial support
• Help to convert homes to add an additional bedroom
• Information about being a kinship carer and where to access support including peer support
• Access to the same training offer as that available to foster carers
• Kinship leave (similar to adoption leave) to enable time and space to support children to settle in

Archie Ratcliffe, Public Affairs and Campaigns Advisor 

Mobile: 07867 189177 | Phone: 020 3838 4868 

Email: [email protected]