Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what financial rewards her Department makes available to kinship carers.

Children placed in a kinship care arrangement by a local authority are looked after children, in which case their carer must be approved as a foster carer. In these circumstances, kinship carers must receive the same support, including financial support, as all other foster carers.

The majority of kinship carers will be caring for children who are not looked after.

Relatives caring for a child in these circumstances are entitled to support, such as child benefit and any other benefits available to parents, subject to the usual eligibility criteria.

In 2011, the Department for Education issued ‘Family and Friends Care: Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities’ which sets out a requirement on local authorities to develop clear, publically accessible policies to describe how they will assess and support children cared for by kinship carers. Such support could include financial help for carers of children who are not looked after, where the local authority assesses this is appropriate.