Kinship

Children who grow up in kinship care can have better outcomes than children who grow up in other types of non-parental care. However, their outcomes fall behind those children who have had no social worker involvement (Promoting the education of children with a social worker and children in kinship care arrangements: virtual school head role extension - GOV.UK).

Children growing up in kinship care may have similar needs to children being cared for by the local authority or those who have been adopted from care. Kinship, the leading charity supporting kinship families in England and Wales, reported in 2023 that:

• 66% of children in kinship care have experienced abuse or neglect
• 68% have experienced parental drug or alcohol misuse
• other children experience parental mental illness or have had to cope with their parents’ death
• over half of children in kinship care have SEND, and 82% of these are for behavioural or emotional issues
• three quarters of children growing up in kinship care are in deprived households
• often there are significant tensions within the family, particularly in relation to managing contact between the children and their parents
• kinship families’ lives are subject to lots of change – often carers take on more children, relationships with the child’s parents can improve or worsen, and legal and financial support takes time to implement

Given children in kinship care may have gone through, or be living through, traumatic and adverse childhood experiences, they can present with the following needs:

• they may struggle to regulate their emotions and behaviours
• they may have difficulties with concentration and learning
• they may struggle with their self-esteem and well-being, including anxiety
• they may experience social difficulties, including bullying or bullying others

See Kinship’s website for more information: Homepage - Kinship - The kinship care charity

Read the 'Understanding Trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences' section.