Recommendation 18

HM Government · verbatim extract Acknowledged

The government greatly appreciates kinship carers and is committed to ensuring that all employed parents and carers receive the support they need to manage both their work and family lives. Kinship Carers in the Workplace: Guidance for Employers , sets out best practice for supporting kinship carers at work, including how employers can adapt internal policies, signpost existing entitlements and create a culture of support to best meet the needs of kinship carers. The government encourages all organisations to review their guidance and explore what changes they can make to better support kinship carers. Through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, we have begun the process of defining kinship care in legislation. By defining kinship care in law, the legislation will provide a clear and consistent framework to ensure that all local authorities interpret and apply the term uniformly, reducing ambiguity and potential disparities in access to information based on a geographic location. The government has also recently announced a £40 million package to trial a new Kinship Allowance later this year in several local authorities to test whether paying an allowance to cover the additional costs of supporting the child can help increase the number of children taken in by family members and friends. We recognise that kinship carers provide a crucial role in society and need support, which is why the parental leave and pay review will consider whether support available meets the needs of working families who do not qualify for existing leave and pay entitlements, such as kinship carers.