Kinship care
Reforming the law to improve the current complex landscape, making kinship care for children options simpler and easier to navigate.
Background (Back to top)
Kinship care has been defined as:
“Any situation in which a child is being raised in the care of a friend or family member who is not their parent for a significant amount of the time. The arrangement may be temporary or longer term.”
(Department for Education, Stable Homes, Built on Love: Implementation Strategy and Consultation (February 2023) p 85)
It is estimated that around 141,000 children live in kinship care arrangements in England and Wales. Most commonly, kinship care will be an alternative to the child entering the care system, or a way of caring for a child who is the subject of a care order.
There are a number of ways for formalising kinship care, including:
- special guardianship orders
- child arrangements orders
- fostering
This variety is confusing and hard to navigate for kinship carers who do not always feel confident that the order underpinning their arrangement is right for their circumstances.
Project (Back to top)
The project will consider the scope for reform to simplify and streamline the orders available to kinship carers, and how to better support the consideration of kinship care as an option for looked after children.
It has been referred to us as part of the Government’s kinship strategy, published as Championing Kinship Care – The National Kinship Care Strategy, in December 2023. The aim of the project is to reform the law to facilitate kinship care for children. In particular it will consider:
- producing a legal definition of kinship care
- how current orders, including child arrangements orders and special guardianship orders are working for kinship carers
- the assessment and approval process for kinship carers
- the potential for reform of such orders in the kinship care context, including considering the possibility of a new bespoke order for this situation
The project will not consider:
- the reform of orders, such as child arrangements orders and special guardianship orders, beyond their application in kinship care
- issues that can best be addressed by changes to practice, procedure and funding (rather than statutory reform), in particular changes to legal aid or financial allowances for kinship carers, as these fall outside the Commission’s remit
The project aims to deliver the following benefits:
- improved efficiency and simplicity in the applicable law
- increased fairness and of supporting social justice for some of the most vulnerable members of our society
Documents (Back to top)
There are no documents published as part of this project currently.
Updates (Back to top)
There are no updates currently for this project.
Next steps (Back to top)
The Law Commission has agreed to take on the project but, due to its resources being fully engaged on active projects, it is not yet in a position to start work in this area. We will update this page when we begin the project.
Contact (Back to top)
Contact us if you have any queries about this project.