Amendment to strengthen kinship care duties in Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

The Government has now agreed to strengthen the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill so that local authorities will be required to consult with children and families in their local area when developing their kinship local offer.

The change means councils must involve children in kinship care, kinship carers and other relevant people when setting out what support is available locally for families raising children who cannot live with their parents. The kinship local offer is intended to provide clear information about the services and help that local authorities make available to children living with relatives or friends.

The amendment introduces a new statutory duty to consult before a kinship local offer is published or updated, and to produce a report setting out how consultation has taken place. It will apply once the relevant section of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act comes into force.

Under the revised legislation, local authorities must consult “relevant persons”, including children living in kinship care, kinship carers, and others who appear to represent their interests. This may include former kinship carers and adults who were previously in kinship care.

The government’s agreement to the amendment follows sustained parliamentary and sector engagement, including work by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Kinship Care, which is supported by the charity Family Rights Group.

Family Rights Group has argued that the kinship local offer will only be effective if it reflects the experiences and priorities of families using the system. Cathy Ashley, the charity’s chief executive, said the duty to consult would help ensure local offers are informed by the views of children and carers and better aligned with local need.

“The new kinship local offer is a crucial step forward in ensuring that when family and friends step up to raise children who cannot live at home, there is information and support available to help the children to thrive. Family Rights Group is proud to have secured this change in the law,” Ashley said.

“As local authorities are getting to work developing their local offer, it is fundamental that they do so with children and families in their area to ensure it reflects their insights and experiences and meets their needs. The National Kinship Care Ambassador has been strongly advocating for this.

“We have been campaigning for the new legislation to make that expectation to consult crystal clear, so families are always involved from the outset. We are pleased that Government agrees and is now introducing that duty to work in partnership with families to the Bill.

“It’s a win for the tens of thousands of kinship families – not least the grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters who take on the care of the children – and crucially for the child themselves.”

Melanie Onn MP, chair of the APPG on Kinship Care, said young people and carers had consistently raised the importance of being involved in decisions about the support available to them. She said the group had pressed ministers to ensure that consultation was built into the legislation.

“The Kinship Local Offer is a major milestone in improving recognition and support for children raised by relatives and friends in kinship care,” Onn said.

“The young people our APPG recently met were really clear that they want to be involved in decisions about their lives and in helping design support available in their area. We’ve also had many conversations with kinship carers frustrated by the battles to secure support that meets their family’s needs.

“We have been making that case to Government and its excellent to see that they will now strengthen the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill so that children and families must be consulted when local authorities are developing their local offer.”

The kinship local offer was introduced as part of wider reforms to improve recognition and support for kinship care, which involves children being raised by relatives or close family friends, such as grandparents, aunts, uncles or older siblings. It is estimated that tens of thousands of children in England live in kinship arrangements, many of them outside the formal care system.