The Department for Education have published updated Kinship Care: Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities, which include the National Kinship Standards. This follows work undertaken by the National Kinship Care Ambassador with local authorities to improve policy and practice in relation to kinship care.
Supporting more children to remain safely within their family networks, including in kinship care arrangements, is central to the vision of the Families First Partnership Programme (FFP), which aims to shift children’s social care towards earlier, more intensive family support, more expert and focused child protection practice, and greater use of family networks to help prevent children from entering local authority care.
Kinship care can be fundamental to achieving the outcomes of the Children’s Social Care National Framework. It can play a vital role in: families staying together and getting the help they need (Outcome 1); children being safe (Outcome 2); children being connected to their family networks (Outcome 3); and in ensuring children and young people have stable, loving homes (Outcome 4).
Kinship care is also central to the ambition of the Department for Education’s Enduring Relationships Programme, which seeks to ensure that every child grows up with a trusted, enduring relationship that provides stability, belonging and support into adulthood, enabling them to feel safe, loved and able to thrive. See Policy Paper: Enduring Relationships for Care-experienced Children (Department for Education).
The National Kinship Standards for local authorities (contained within Kinship Care: Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities (Department for Education) establish expectations for the delivery of services to kinship families.
Standard 1 – Local authorities provide needs-led support and take a whole-family approach, working with kinship carers, parents and the wider family network to understand and support the child or young person’s best interests;
Standard 2 – The voice and experiences of kinship children and young people are at the heart of all decision making;
Standard 3 – Anti-discriminatory and inclusive practice underpin all support provided to kinship families;
Standard 4 – Local authorities prioritise the safeguarding and wellbeing of children in kinship care, providing appropriate support to kinship carers to help them manage complex family dynamics and arrangements;
Standard 5 – Local authorities work with a diverse range of kinship families to develop an approach to kinship care and a clear, accessible, comprehensive kinship local offer that serves the entire local kinship community;
Standard 6 – Integrated, multi-agency support for kinship families is delivered through collaborative practice and system-wide learning, and across local authority boundaries where necessary.
All local authorities must publish information about services they offer in their area for children in kinship care and their families, and their approach towards meeting the needs of children in these arrangements.
Research and Analysis: Improving the Kinship Local Offer and Approach to Kinship Care (Department for Education) sets out key themes and considerations when designing a kinship local offer.
Local authorities should also take account of Foundations Practice Guide on Kinship Care when developing, commissioning and improving services for kinship families. This practice guide supports local authorities to achieve the outcomes of the National Framework by providing a set of key principles alongside actionable recommendations of what works in kinship care:
Kinship families need to be made aware of the support they are entitled to, and local authorities should actively work to address barriers to accessing support.
