Evidence-based practice 'not consistent' in local authority approaches to kinship care

The Kinship Care Practice Guide brings together the most robust and up-to-date evidence about the services likely to be most effective for kinship carers. It is underpinned by the first large-scale review of its kind of the international evidence on programmes that best support kinship carers and their children.

There are now more than 164,000 children living in kinship care with relatives or close family friends in England and Wales, more than twice the total number of children in foster care. Kinship carers are more likely than other carers to be older, be socio-economically disadvantaged, and to be from some minoritised ethnic backgrounds.

A recent survey of more than 1300 kinship carers across England and Wales found that kinship carers were more than twice as likely to be depending on food banks than other UK adults. It also found that, without better support for kinship carers, 18,000 children could enter the care system.

"Kinship carers are unsung heroes, stepping up for their loved ones and helping children to feel loved and accepted during a time of immense change and turmoil,” Janet Daby, Minister for Children and Families said, adding: “But we know that it's not easy, which is why it's so important that local authorities offer the knowledge and expertise to support kinship carers to help their family to thrive in their community.”

The new guide by the national What Works Centre for Children and Families aims to close the gap between practice on the ground, and evidence about what works to improve outcomes for children and kinship families.

Key recommendations to local authority leaders include giving kinship carers specialist support to navigate what is on offer for them and provide structured parenting support programmes for kinship carers.

It also recommends making Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) available for kinship carers where children display behaviours that challenge their carers.

"For the first time, local authorities now have access to most rigorous and up-to-date evidence of its kind about what works to support kinship carers, helping to keep thousands of children in their family networks and out of care,” Dr Jo Casebourne, Chief Executive at Foundations, said.

The guide is published alongside separate research on how evidence is used by local authorities, commissioned from the Institute for Public Care (IPC) and published today by Foundations. This research found that, despite an appetite among local authorities for using high quality evidence, evidence-based practice is not consistently embedded in local authorities' culture or leadership in children's services.

The research also finds financial and workforce pressures are among the significant barriers to local authorities' use of evidence in children's services.

Fiona Richardson, Director of the Institute of Public Care at Oxford Brookes University said: "Our research aimed to close the gap between practice on the ground and what the evidence tells us works to support kinship carers and the children they look after. Local authorities are eager to use evidence to shape commissioning and service design, but they face significant barriers – including financial and workforce constraints".