Councils handed guide to what works in supporting kinship families

Councils have been handed a guide to what works in supporting kinship families, according to the current evidence base.

They have been urged to offer carers specialist support in navigating services and financial allowances, to help support permanency and reduce placement disruption, along with providing parenting programmes to support the wellbeing of carers and children.

The practice guide, from what works body Foundations, is the first in a series of Department for Education-commissioned publications designed to provide councils with evidence-informed guidance on meeting the outcomes in the DfE’s children’s social care national framework (see box).

The kinship carer guide was based on a systematic review of the evidence of what works in improving outcomes for kinship carers and children in the UK and similar countries, and of what UK carers value in the support they receive.

‘Limited but growing evidence base’

The Centre for Evidence and Implementation (CEI), which conducted the review, found that the evidence base around how best to support kinship carers was “limited but continuing to grow”.

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The research was strongest in relation to so-called kinship navigator programmes, which provide carers with specialist practitioners and information to help them access the support to which they and the children they care for are entitled. These are widespread in the US but have not been formally introduced in the UK, though the Kinship Connected programme, run by the charity Kinship, is similar, said the CEI.

The US studies analysed suggested that navigator programmes had small but significant impacts on the likelihood of children being placed in kinship care where a decision was made to remove them from the family home, and also on reducing the likelihood of placement disruption thereafter.

There was also some evidence, from two studies, of navigator programmes helping children to move into permanency, whether through reunification with their parents, adoption or guardianship.

Evidence for navigator programmes improving child safety and carers’ wellbeing, parenting skills and knowledge of services was more limited.

Navigator programmes ‘should be rolled out in UK’

The CEI concluded that the navigator programmes approach “holds promise” and should be rolled out and evaluated in the UK.

Based on this, Foundations’ practice guide says councils should “offer kinship carers specialist support to learn about, navigate and access the support that they are entitled to”, on the basis there was “good evidence” that this worked.

The CEI also found a small but statistically significant impact on permanence from providing financial subsidies to kinship carers who take on guardianship for children, based on five papers across three US studies.

However, it said the small number of studies meant this finding should be interpreted with caution, stressed the different context for permanence in the UK, compared with the US, and argued that more evidence was needed to examine stability and child wellbeing outcomes, along with legal permanency.

Call for councils to offer financial allowances

Based on this, the practice guide says there is “promising evidence” for councils to offer a financial allowance to kinship carers “to increase placement permanency, reduce the likelihood of placement disruption and improve the likelihood of permanent guardianship”.

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Currently, in England, the only kinship carers entitled to a financial allowance are family and friends foster carers. Those caring for a child under a special guardianship order (SGO) or child arrangements order (CAO) may receive a means-tested payment, though this is discretionary, while no specific provision from children’s services exists for informal kinship carers.

In its kinship care strategy, published in December 2023, the previous Conservative government announced it would pilot providing special guardians of former looked-after children with allowances equivalent to those received by foster carers, in eight areas from 2024-28, backed by £16m in 2024-25. The Labour government is yet to confirm whether it will take this forward.

Impact of parenting programmes

The systematic review also found positive impacts from parenting programmes for kinship carers on their wellbeing and that of the children they were caring for, along with on the children’s behaviour. However, the CEI urged caution based on the fact these findings were based on small sample sizes, while it found no evidence of impact on carers’ parenting and their relationships with children.

The CEI called for more “rigorous evaluations to be able to understand the efficacy of these programmes and other approaches for kinship carers and the children in their care, especially within the UK”.

In the light of this, Foundations recommends that councils offer parenting support to kinship carers when a child or young person is demonstrating behaviours that challenge their carer on a frequent basis, based on “promising evidence”.

Providing CBT, peer support groups and self-care training

The practice guide makes three further recommendations for authorities, also based on promising evidence.

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It says authorities should make cognitive behavioural therapy available to kinship carers assessed as in need of therapeutic support due to, for example, the child displaying behaviours that challenge the carer, in order to reduce these behaviours.

This was based on a single study, which found a positive impact of CBT for carers on children’s behaviours. While this had a “fairly large” sample and low risk of bias, the CEI said further research was needed to replicate the finding.

The practice guide also calls for councils to provide cares with access to peer support in order to improve their wellbeing. The two relevant papers in the systematic review suggested a positive impact on carer wellbeing, but one had some concerns for risk of bias and used a fairly small sample and the other did not report effect sizes, said the CEI.

The practice guide also recommends offering kinship carers training in self-care to support their emotional health and wellbeing. This was based on three papers, for which the CEI found “some evidence of
promise”. However, it did not report high confidence in the findings because the strength and significance of the results varied significantly across the studies.

What kinship carers want in their support

The systematic review also looked at UK carers’ perspectives on the support they needed. While it said there was a limited research base for this in the UK, it found the messages for practice were clear and distilled  them into 10 statements, five of which it had “high confidence” in:

1. An intervention’s distinction from statutory services is perceived to facilitate engagement, favourable experiences and positive outcomes. The CEI found kinship carers felt more positively about support from non-statutory services due to prior negative experiences with statutory provision, including “a closed-door approach” and “sporadic and unreliable” from social workers.
2. Providing carers with access to a network of peers enhances an intervention’s acceptability and usefulness. Carers reported finding solace, understanding and practical support within these groups.
3. Carers value specialised support due to their unmet needs and the gaps in statutory services. Carers reported that social care and other services frequently underestimated the severity of their needs, lacked appropriate services to address them, or imposed eligibility criteria that families found challenging to meet. They expressed a strong preference for interventions tailored specifically to address the unique challenges faced by kinship families.
4. Carers value recipient-centred programmes. The studies found that carers appreciated support that was collaboratively designed, tailored and flexible.
5. Targeted interventions for kinship families were perceived as beneficial by both carers and practitioners. They reported that this benefited carers’ wellbeing and parenting skills.

Good practice principles

Based on the statements, Foundations’ practice guide sets out three key principles for working with kinship families:

• Support for kinship carers should take into account the specific needs and strengths of kinship carers.
• One-to-one relationships and high-quality casework should be at the heart of support for kinship families.
• 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.

Implementing the guidance

Alongside the practice guide, Foundations published a reflective tool, to help local authorities implement it. This advises councils to assess their current level of provision for kinship families, identify gaps and support and make plans to fill these, act on these plans and then review the impact.

In a blog post, the DfE’s chief social worker for children and families, Isabelle Trowler, said that Foundations would be working with a small number of local authorities to embed the guide’s recommendations and generate learning that can be shared more widely.

The guide also follows last week’s publication by the DfE of statutory guidance for councils on kinship care, which is an update of 2011 guidance on family and friends care.

The statutory guidance calls on councils to provide kinship families with a “local offer”, which “should be based on evidence of what works”, drawing on the practice guide.

Financial offer to carers

The local offer should set out the eligibility criteria for financial carers, the process for applying for this and circumstances in which means-testing will apply, while councils should draw up written agreements setting out the level and duration of any support given.

In response to this, Association of Directors of Children’s Services president Andy Smith said: “The guidance provides for each local area to design its own financial support offer. ADCS has advocated for these payments to be made via the benefits system to reduce our involvement in family life where there are no ongoing concerns or needs.”

National ambassador role

The publication of the practice guide and updated statutory guidance also follows the appointment of adultification bias expert Jahnine Davis as England’s first national kinship care ambassador.

National kinship care ambassador Jahnine Davis

One of her roles is to support and challenge councils to improve practice, which Trowler highlighted in her blog post about the new practice guide.