Blog post by Laura Williams of the Garden Court Chambers Family Law Team.
In October 2024, the Department for Education published statutory guidance for local authorities on kinship care. It replaces and updates the 2010 Family and Friends Care guidance and is issued under section 7 of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970.
In this article, I have highlighted the parts of the guidance which are likely to come in handy when advising and representing kinship carers.
Information
Each local authority is required to publish a kinship local offer (previously referred to as a local family and friends care policy) setting out all support and services available to kinship children and their carers. The kinship local offer should be clearly expressed, regularly updated, made freely and widely available, including on the local authority’s website and publicised by relevant means, such as websites and leaflets.
Financial support
The kinship local offer should set out the eligibility for any financial support available. It should identify how kinship carers can apply for financial support, the circumstances in which they will be eligible for financial support, when means testing will apply, and how and when decisions are made about eligibility.
When financial support is offered, a written agreement should be drawn up detailing the level and duration of the support that is to be provided, and the mechanism for review, to ensure that all parties remain clear about the arrangements.
Education
Previously, looked-after children have top priority in school admissions and should be placed in good or outstanding schools.
Formerly, looked-after children and those in formal kinship care arrangements are 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.
Family time
Kinship local offers should identify services available to kinship carers to support the management of family time arrangements, and where necessary to offer independent supervision.
Therapeutic support
The local offer should also make kinship carers aware that the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) is available to children and families where the children are subject to Special Guardianship Orders or Child Arrangement Orders and were previously in care. The ASGSF provides funding for therapeutic support for these children and young people up to and including the age of 21, or up to the age of 25 if the child has an education, health and care plan.
Temporary approval of kinship foster carers
In order to care for a looked after child, relatives, friends or other persons who are connected with the child must be approved as foster carers under the 2011 Regulations[1] or temporarily approved as foster carers under the 2010 Regulations[2].
Every effort must be made to maximise the level and quality of information available to support the decision as to whether the person should be temporarily approved. In particular, the assessment must look at the quality of any existing relationship between the child and the proposed carer. The intention of this provision is that the connected person has an existing relationship with the child. There may be some circumstances where the connected person is known to the child’s parents or other person with parental responsibility but is not known to the child. In such circumstances the child should be introduced to the connected person, and the proposed accommodation, in order for the child’s wishes and feelings to be appropriately ascertained.
Assessment of kinship carers as foster carers
The kinship local offer should cover information about the assessment and approval process for kinship foster carers who apply to be foster carers for a specific looked after child.
When making decisions about kinship foster carers, the fostering panel should not make negative recommendations solely based on prospective kinship foster carers not meeting the National Minimum Standards for fostering during the assessment. As outlined in MBC v X & Ors [2018] EWFC 42, the deciding question should be: ‘Is the proposed placement in the child’s welfare interests?’ If the placement aligns with the child’s best interests, then the prospective kinship foster carer should still be considered for approval to foster the child, and then they should be supported by the fostering service to attain the standards.
Where it is assessed that the kinship carer could meet the needs but will require some support or services to be able to do so, these should be specified in the assessment report required under regulation 26 of the 2011 Regulations.
Fostering panels should try to avoid making negative recommendations solely based on the foster carers not having adequate space in their accommodation to a suitable standard during the assessment. Housing and social care should work in partnership to support the housing needs of kinship families.
[1] The Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011
[2] The Care Planning Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010
