Kinship Care – Latest Developments

When and why are kinship care arrangements used?

There are more than 153,000 children living in kinship care arrangements in England and Wales. Most commonly, kinship care will be an alternative to the child entering the care system, or a way of caring for a child who is the subject of a care order and research shows that it leads to better outcomes for children compared to the care system.

There are a number of ways to formalise kinship care, including: special guardianship orders; child arrangements orders; and fostering under interim or full care orders.  As there is no single definition of kinship care in primary legislation, kinship carers can face many challenges including not being recognised in their parenting role by hospital services, schools, or employers.

Following the 2022 Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, which adopted a proposal for a new legal definition of kinship care in June 2025, the Law Commission announced a project that will consider the scope for the reform of kinship care arrangements. In particular, it will look at how the orders underpinning kinship care placements can be simplified and streamlined.  The Commission is also considering the options to make kinship care simpler and easier to navigate for carers and children who cannot remain with their parents.

Championing Kinship Care – The National Kinship Care Strategy

The project (part of the Government’s kinship strategy, published as Championing Kinship Care – The National Kinship Care Strategy) will particularly consider:

• producing a legal definition of kinship care for the purpose of the issues considered in the project;
• the adequacy and consistency of the legal orders underpinning kinship care placements, including whether the current legislation meets the needs of children and kinship carers;
• the potential for reform of such orders, including considering the possibility of a new bespoke order to recognise, support and regulate kinship care arrangements;
• the legal processes and thresholds for assessment, approval and oversight of kinship carers.

The project will not consider the reform of orders, such as care orders, child arrangements orders and special guardianship orders, beyond their application in kinship care, but will actively consider inclusion and diversity throughout. It is hoped that the project will pay attention to potential disparities in how the law is experienced and the outcomes it produces.

A clear definition set out in primary legislation could provide the foundation for an effective and consistent kinship care support system. Meeting the definition could automatically passport kinship carers and their children to a minimum level of support and services.

Alongside this, CoramBAAF has published the new Kinship Care Assessment (Form K) England. The change in name from Form C to Form K reflects the national policy reform agenda, and a growing awareness of the complexity and importance of kinship care. The new assessment amplifies the voice of the child and focuses on the relationship between them and the prospective kinship carer, and on highlighting support needs. Practitioners may wish to clarify within proceedings whether local authorities are using the new assessment framework.

Recent Case Law Updates

Re K-H (Children) (Care Orders: Proportionality) [2025] EWCA Civ 1368 is a reminder of the crucial role of kinship carers and the importance of them playing an active role within care proceedings.  Care proceedings begun in December 2022 and throughout the proceedings, the children had lived with their paternal grandparents, having been placed with them under an interim child arrangements order after being removed from their parents. However, in 2025, the local authority sought their removal into long-term foster care because of the risk of future sexual harm. The Judge approved the local authority plan, and the children were removed to foster carer.

The Court of Appeal held that the judge had erred in making care orders and removing them from their grandparents’ care. The judge had noted the positives of the status quo, including the children’s strong attachment to the grandparents and the high standard of care they had received. However, there were also disadvantages in a change, including the trauma of removal and the disadvantages of being in long-term foster care and the care plan had required compelling justification.

The Court of Appeal held that the judge had given excessive weight to the one factor of risk of sexual harm, so that it came to outweigh all other aspects of the children’s welfare. The Court of Appeal ordered that the children would be returned to the grandparents, and the orders would be replaced by supervision orders to enable the local authority to be alert to any difficulties. The Court also had some criticism of the local authority for removing the children before the appeal was heard, and indeed of the other parties for not applying for a stay in the implementation of the decision.

On the other hand, the limits of the courts’ willingness to delay proceedings for kinship assessments is illustrated by the Court of Appeal’s decision in Re M (A Child) (Placement Order) [2025] EWCA Civ 214.  An appeal against a judge’s decision to proceed to make a placement order, rather than adjourn to allow relatives from Pakistan to come to the UK and be assessed here, was dismissed following a Children and Families Across Borders assessment. The Court of Appeal acknowledged that cases with such an international element were a potential exception to the 26-week timetable and that CA 1989 s32(5) allows for an extension of that timetable.

However, it emphasised that the extension should only be granted where justice (fairness or the child’s welfare) makes it necessary. There is no presumption in favour of a child being placed with family. In this case, there were uncertainties of timescales because of matters beyond the control of the courts: visas, funding and securing orders in Pakistan would all take time to resolve (with no guarantees that they would be resolved in the relatives’ favour) to be weighed against the needs of a child who, at nearly 18 months, was at a critical stage for forming attachments.

Pilot Scheme

Finally, on 17 June 2025, the government launched a £40 million pilot, funding up to ten local authority areas to deliver an allowance for kinship carers with a special guardianship order (SGO) or a “lives with” child arrangement order (CAO). The allowance will match the national minimum allowance delivered to kinship foster carers by selected local authorities and the pilot will run between November 2025 and March 2029.  Local authorities are not eligible to apply if their existing financial offer matches the pilot offer. The deadline has passed to apply for this pilot but whether it is extended will be followed with interest, as ensuring that kinship carers receive adequate allowances is fundamental to their success.