Legal Summary, Kinship Care: Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities

New guidance has been published in October 2024 (the Guidance) to local authorities in respect of kinship care. It is effective as from the date of publication, so it is already in force. The Guidance is primarily directed at local authorities but is useful for all of us, especially those advising/representing current or potential kinship carers and children. It will be useful to understand the new terminology.

‘Kinship Local Offer’

The Guidance sets out a framework for the provision of support for both the children (living with a kinship carer) and kinship carers/potential kinship carers. It requires each local authority to publish a ‘kinship local offer’ in which is set out what support is available in the specific local authority area.
The policy context for the Guidance is stated to be that local authorities are to promote support for families on the basis that ‘children are best looked after within their families unless compulsory intervention in family life is necessary’.
Whilst the Guidance does not place any new statutory guidance on local authorities it replaces what was previously known as Family and Friends Care statutory guidance.
The main changes being brought in are contained in Chapter 3 of the Guidance entitled the ‘The Local Kinship Offer’.
What was previously known as a local family and friends policy will now be known as a ‘kinship local offer’. This will include the provision of information about all support and services in the local area, which is to be readily available to those who need it.
The Guidance states that the support available should be based on the needs of the child rather than the legal status of the child.
This will be supported by the ‘Children’s Social Care Dashboard’ which will provide information about what resources are available in the local area to support both children themselves and kinship (and potential kinship) carers.

Information that should be made available by the local authority
The information to be made available should include information about:

• Universal services e.g. early years provision
• Out of school services
• Schools and colleges
• Health
• Leisure facilities
• Youth support services

In drafting its kinship local offer, each local authority should consider the availability and route for accessing the following:

• Support Groups and Training
• Financial support: ‘local authorities should set out the eligibility criteria for any financial support available’.
• Supporting kinship carers to stay in work
• Accommodation
• Education
• Supporting Family Time: ‘Kinship local offers should identify services available to kinship carers to support the management of family time arrangements and where necessary to offer independent supervision’ and ‘local authorities should consider providing family time support for different types of kinship arrangements including children who are not looked after’.
• Family Group Decision Making (FGDM)

This is described in the Guidance as ‘an umbrella term for a family-led forum where the parents and the family network make a plan in response to concerns about a child’s safety and wellbeing’. Local authorities are encouraged to use the Family Group Conference model although no model is prescribed for this in the Guidance. It is stated that FGDM can be offered repeatedly during the family’s journey through the children’s social care system.

• Legal Support
Information should be made available through the kinship local offer about the availability of legal aid and also: ‘If a kinship carer wishes to discuss their matter with a legal aid provider and explore their eligibility further, you’ (presumably the social worker or other local authority professional) ‘can refer them to the Find a Legal aid adviser or family mediator tool which will assist them to find a provider in the area’.

• Therapeutic Support
The Guidance states that Local authorities should make kinship carers aware that the Adoption and Special Guardianship Fund (ASGSF) is available to children and families who are either subject to Special Guardianship Orders or Child Arrangements Order and were previously in care and that funding for therapeutic support is available for these children up to the age of 21 (or 25 for a young person on an EHCP).

Types of Arrangements that should be covered by the kinship local offer

• Private Fostering Arrangements
The Guidance states that ‘Private foster carers may at the same time be kinship carers, and be facing the same issues as other kinship carers, and so should have access to the same range of support services as informal kinship carers’.

• Kinship Foster Carers
The Guidance states that ‘it is not acceptable to discriminate against kinship foster carers on the basis that that they have a pre-existing connections with the child they are caring for’. The important Judicial Review case of 2001 (Manchester City Council judgment) is specifically referred to (R (L(A Child)) v Manchester City Council [2001] EWHC 707 (Admin)) in which it was held  that it was  unlawful to discriminate against kinship foster carers by paying them a lower allowance that non-relative foster carers.

• Special Guardianship, Child arrangements and Adoption
The Guidance states that local authorities should set out, in their kinship local offer, where further information can be found about by what means kinship carers may seek support services, advice and guidance and the implications of the various legal orders which give them parental responsibility.

Legal overview of kinship care
The Guidance also contains a useful overview of the various forms of kinship care and the statutory implications of each different legal option by which children are cared for by kinship carers. Whilst this will already be known to practitioners, it may be a useful resource to refer clients to.

Claire Starkie
Albion Chambers
October 2024