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Kinship Care – Provision of Support

Kinship Care: Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities sets out a requirement on Local Authorities to provide a kinship Local Offer. kinship Local Offers should be underpinned by the principle that support should be based on the needs of the child rather than merely their legal status. The kinship Local Offer should provide kinship families with support to ensure that children do not become looked after, or remain looked after, longer than is needed.

Please note

Sandwell’s Kinship Care Offer is currently under review.
This page will be updated early October 2026 with details.

The following areas summarise the support available to kinship carers.

Support Groups and Training

The local authority should guide kinship carers to peer support groups and relevant training. Local authorities should collaborate with partner agencies and the voluntary sector to establish and improve access to this type of support.

Training can boost the confidence of kinship carers and equip them with skills and knowledge to provide high-quality care. For example, the training can include:

  • Information about different types of kinship care;
  • Knowledge about child development and how to manage challenging behaviours; or
  • Practical information on how to navigate the children’s social care system, register for a new school or how to access a GP.

Provision of Financial Support – General Principles

There are three categories of payment, which may be considered. One or more of these may be applicable, depending on the particular circumstances of the case:

1: Subsistence crisis (one-off) payments

These should be used to overcome a crisis, following the best assessment that can be achieved in the circumstances.

2: Setting-up

These are for such items as clothing, furniture, or bedding. The social worker must be satisfied that the carers’ financial position justifies the payment through a financial assessment. Assistance may be given subject to conditions, including repayment in certain situations. However, in most situations, it will be inappropriate for the Department to seek to recover money provided under these circumstances.

3: Weekly living contribution

It is possible for the local authority to make regular payments where family members or friends care for a child whether or not the child is not Looked After. Where regular payments are to be made, relative carers should be assisted to maximise their Income/Benefit as regular payments may adversely affect an individual’s claim to income support.

In all cases where regular financial support is agreed, a written agreement will be drawn up detailing the level and duration of the financial support that is to be provided, and the mechanism for review.

The following criteria will be applied to all such payments:

  • The purpose of the payments must be to safeguard and promote the welfare of the child;
  • As part of the assessment, a view should be taken as to whether the carers need financial support based on their reasonable requirements in taking on the care of the child;
  • There are no other legitimate sources of finance;
  • Payments will be paid to the carer, not the parents;
  • The payment would not place any person in a fraudulent position.

Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund

Local authorities and regional adoption agencies can apply for therapeutic funding for eligible adoptive, special guardianship order and child arrangement order families. Local authorities and RAAs must apply to the ASGSF within 3 months of assessing a family’s support needs. The Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) is available to most children being raised under a Special Guardianship and Child Arrangement Order. This also includes children up to and including the age of 21, or 25 with an education, health and care (EHC) plan who:

  • Are living (placed) with a family in England while waiting for adoption;
  • Were adopted from local authority care in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland and live in England;
  • Were adopted from abroad and live in England with a recognised adoption status;
  • Were in care before an SGO was made;
  • Left care under a special guardianship order that was subsequently changed to an adoption order, or vice versa;
  • Are under a residency order or child arrangement Types oorder (CAO) and were previously looked after;
  • Were previously looked after but where the adoption, special guardianship, residency or CAO placement has broken down, irrespective of any reconciliation plans.

For more information and how to apply see: Adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF).

Employment Support

kinship Carers in the Workplace: Guidance for Employers sets out best practice for supporting kinship carers at work, including the right to be entitled to leave benefits similar to that of parents and adopters.

Accommodation

kinship carers may need support with accommodation, as their homes may not be of sufficient capacity to take on the care of a child or possibly a sibling group of children.

Living in cramped conditions may add to the pressures of caring for a child. Housing authorities and registered social landlords should be engaged to ensure that their policies recognise the importance of the role performed by kinship carers, and that whenever possible kinship carers living in social housing are given appropriate priority to move to more suitable accommodation if this will prevent the need for a child to become looked after.

Local authorities have the power under section 17 of the 1989 Act to give financial support towards accommodation costs where they assess this as the most appropriate way to safeguard and promote a child’s welfare.

Education

To support the educational attainment of children who left local authority care through special guardianship or child arrangements order:

  1. Virtual school heads have a statutory duty to promote the educational attainment of pupils who are no longer looked after because they are the subject of an adoption, special guardianship, or child arrangements order through the provision of information and advice to their parents, educators, and others they consider necessary;
  2. All maintained schools and academies must appoint a designated teacher, who has a leadership role in promoting the educational achievement of every previously looked after child on the school’s roll. This includes making sure that all staff have high expectations of their learning and understand the importance of involving the child’s parents or guardians in decisions affecting their child’s education;
  3. Previously looked after children attract Pupil Premium Plus funding, which is provided to help improve their education outcomes and close the attainment gap between them and their peers. It is paid to and managed by the school, with allocations based on the number of previously looked after children recorded in the school’s October school census return to the Department for Education;
  4. Previously looked after children have top priority in school admissions and should be placed in good or outstanding schools;
  5. Previously looked after children and those in formal kinship care arrangements are also eligible to be secured a school place through Fair Access Protocols. This is the mechanism which ensures that unplaced and vulnerable children who are having difficulty securing school places in-year are allocated one promptly.

The School Admissions Code provides that children being raised by family and friends carers under a Special Guardianship Order or Child Arrangements Order, who struggle to get a school place during the year, will be supported in finding one. In addition, Pupil Premium for permanently placed children (also known as Pupil Premium Plus) was introduced in 2014. Pupil Premium Plus is awarded in recognition that many adopted and permanently placed children need extra support in school because of the circumstances that led to them being placed into care, and later being adopted or being placed on a SGO or CAO. See Pupil Premium Overview.

Promoting the Education of Children with a Social Worker and Children in kinship Care Arrangements: Virtual School Head Role Extension highlights the inclusion of children in kinship settings having access to the virtual school head program to continue to support their academic achievement.

Supporting Contact with Parents

The authority is under a duty to promote contact for all Children in Need, although this differs depending on whether or not the child is Looked After.

Where the child is not Looked After, we are required to promote contact between the child and his/her family ‘where it is necessary to do so in order to safeguard and promote his or her welfare’. As part of the support arrangements, it may be identified that specific assistance is required to ensure that any such contact can be managed safely. If necessary, information will be made available to family and friends carers about local contact centres and family mediation services, and how to make use of their services.

Where a child is Looked After, we are required to endeavour to promote contact between the child and his or her family ‘unless it is not practicable or consistent with the child’s welfare’. The overall objective of the contact arrangements will be included in the child’s Care Plan and the specific arrangements will be set out in the child’s Placement Plan – see Family Time with Parents/Adults and Siblings Procedure.