Kinship carers call for statutory paid leave as lack of support harms children

Kinship carers should have a legal right to paid leave from work when they take responsibility for a child, the charity Kinship has urged, warning that the lack of employment support is harming children’s wellbeing and making it harder for families to adjust to new caring responsibilities.

Research based on a survey of 1,245 kinship carers found that 41% said the absence of paid leave increased stress or anxiety among children entering their care, while 32% said it made it harder for children to manage trauma. A further 30% said it created challenges in accessing or settling children into childcare or nursery provision.

Kinship carers are relatives or family friends who take on the care of children, often during a family crisis. Around 141,000 children in England and Wales are being raised in kinship care, providing them with family connections and stable homes. However, unlike birth and adoptive parents, kinship carers have no statutory right to paid leave when a child comes into their care.

The charity said paid leave could help children settle into their new homes, with 66% of surveyed carers saying it would help children bond with their carers. Almost half (48%) said it would reduce financial pressure on families, while 47% said it would give carers time to adjust to their new responsibilities.

Lucy, 32, from Cleethorpes, and her partner were refused paid leave by their employers when they became kinship carers to their two-day-old nephew in 2023. Lucy received six weeks of compassionate leave but struggled to manage a full-time job alongside caring for a newborn, eventually taking temporary sick leave before placing the baby in childcare at four months old.

She said: "I obviously didn't want that to happen as it's vital for newborn babies to build a bond and have 1-2-1 developmental support, but again I had no choice as I had to keep earning to keep our home and bills stable.

"You go through so much stress when you become a kinship carer and paid employment leave would have been one less thing for us to worry about. Instead of having that time with him I was worried sick all the time. Why should our children be disadvantaged?"

New YouGov polling commissioned by Kinship suggests there is substantial employer support for a change in the law. Among 1,021 human resources decision-makers surveyed, 76% supported a government-funded statutory paid leave scheme for kinship carers.

A coalition of major employers, trade unions and business organisations, including Tesco and B&Q, has also joined Kinship in calling on the government to introduce statutory paid leave. In an open letter to Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, the coalition argues that the current system leaves kinship carers without employment rights available to other parents.

Lucy Peake, Chief Executive of Kinship, said: "Kinship carers enable children to stay within loving families, providing stability and better outcomes for children compared to children in other forms of non-parental care, while saving the public purse millions.

"When employers see the unfairness of the current law, they want to act and some are already leading the way.

"However, voluntary employer action is not enough. Legislative change must happen in this Parliament. Kinship carers take on life-changing responsibilities for children who have experienced trauma and loss. They must be treated fairly, and our parental leave policies brought firmly into the 21st century."

Some employers have already introduced their own policies. B&Q provides kinship care leave, which its Director of People Operations and Experience, Mary Redcliffe, said helps support staff both at work and in their caring roles.

She said: "Kinship carers need supporting just as much as any other colleague who is a primary carer for a child, so that they can be at their best when working and when caring for the child.

"We have a Kinship Care Leave policy not only because we believe it's the right thing to do – to give equitable leave - but also because it helps us to retain talented and skilled colleagues.

"Whilst many employers are supportive of Kinship Care Leave, the lack of statutory provision means there's inconsistencies and uncertainty for kinship carers. It's a gap that needs to be closed and we're supportive of creating greater consistency through statutory provision."

Tesco’s Group Reward and Wellbeing Director, Natasha Rice, also backed government action, saying: "Providing paid kinship leave is the right thing to do for families and for business.

"At Tesco, it helps us retain talented colleagues and provide them with security at a time in their life when they are stepping up and providing a safe and loving home to a child.

"While there's growing support for kinship carers amongst employers, there are still far too many instances of people being unable to access the support they need and that's why Government backing, and raising awareness, is crucial."

Kinship said voluntary employer schemes could not provide consistent support across the country. Its polling found that a lack of government funding was the biggest barrier employers faced in introducing paid kinship leave, alongside limited awareness of kinship care and uncertainty about how a scheme would operate.

Previous research by the charity found that 45% of working kinship carers lose their jobs after taking on a child’s care, and 80% of those who leave employment never return to work. It also found that 40% are forced to claim benefits or increase existing claims, while 51% said paid leave would have helped them return to work sooner or remain employed.

Joanne Thomas, General Secretary at Usdaw, said: "Statutory parental leave and pay rights need an urgent update to include everyone who has parental responsibility for raising a child, including kinship carers.

"Kinship carers step in often at short notice to raise children whose parents can't and yet they are expected to be back at work the following day. The absence of a period of paid leave means kinship carers are at high risk of dropping out of the labour market altogether or being compelled to reduce their hours at a time when they can least afford to.

"Paid leave has long been available to birth and adoptive parents and rightly so. Making it available to kinship carers is long overdue. Providing support to a comparably small number of parents at this crucial time in their lives and the lives of the children they raise costs relatively little but means an awful lot."