Kinship carers are remarkable people who step up, when children need them, to provide the most important aspects in any childhood – loving relationships and a secure home. They are a critical part of our care system and the support and respect they receive should reflect this.

As well as failing to help families at an early stage, the care system has not been sufficiently focussed on finding children loving homes and relationships that will give them the best possible start in life. A series of changes enacted by this Government is changing this. I support the Government’s ‘Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill’, which will enshrine the first definition of kinship care in law and will mandate local authorities to publish their kinship local offer. This will increase their accountability, ensuring all kinship families are getting the information they need about the support that is available to them. It will also require local authorities to offer families a group decision-making meeting before applying to take a child into care. The Bill is currently making its way through the House of Lords.

In the 2024 Autumn Budget, the Government invested £44 million towards a Kinship Allowance pilot, which is the single biggest investment in kinship care to date. The pilot will provide a financial allowance for kinship carers, equivalent to the allowance for foster carers. It will begin later in the year and will support around 5,000 children in kinship care. The pilot will run in up to ten local authorities to begin with, to allow the effectiveness of the policy to be tested. I strongly support this evidence-based approach to policy making as the best route to giving kinship carers the support they need. The government is also funding dozens of kinship peer support groups across the country and is testing family network support plans as a route to back kinship networks who could safely look after one of their kin.

On top of this, the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund provides valuable therapeutic support for children and their families to help them lead more stable family lives. It has so far helped over 54,000 children access the support they need, strengthened family relationships, and helping to prevent family breakdown. That is why I’m happy that £50 million was provided for the fund for this year. Applications to the fund that run into the 2026/27 financial year can now be made, giving families the clarity and reassurance they need to plan for their children’s ongoing support and reassuring those in the sector that they can continue to deliver these services. Next year, the Government will launch a public engagement process to better understand how well the fund is working to ensure that effective services are reaching children and families as efficiently as possible.

The new Children and Families Minister, Josh MacAlister MP, recently meet with kinship carers as part of Kinship Care Week. During the meeting, he made clear his commitment to strengthen the support available to them.

Thank you to those constituents who have contacted me about this important issue.

Best wishes

Rt Hon Hilary Benn
MP for Leeds South
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland