EU Kinship Carers Project

Baroness Massey used a debate in the House of Lords to raise concerns about the position of kinship carers in England.

Baroness Massey is the current Chair of the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse in England, and was the chair of the seminar I recently addressed in the House of Lords about the issues of kinship care and substance misuse.

She said:

Some families have particular needs. The noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, was thinking of grandparents. I am thinking of grandparents with sole care of their grandchildren because their son or daughter is dead, in prison, or addicted to drugs or alcohol. I have raised the issue before in your Lordships’ House, and some concessions have been made but, frankly, such grandparents are still in serious difficulty. Outcomes for children who go into care with family or friends are so much better, socially and academically, than those for children who go into other forms of care that such grandparents deserve more financial help and other support. They save the state millions but they sometimes have to scratch around, filling in endless forms, for a pittance. Do the Government have any plans to look at this situation again?

In responding to that particular point Lord Hill, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Education, says:

I do not believe that the Government have any plans to move on financial assistance, but I will take that point back. As anyone who has had children knows, the relationship between grandparent and grandchild is a very special one both ways, and is often far less complicated than the one between child and parent. I agree entirely about the importance of grandparents.

Information we had at our conference earlier this week suggested that there is a willingness to look at the way the benefits system affects kinship carers across the UK.

However, we know that this is a complex task and inevitably that means it will probably take a long time to get reforms.