Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Recommendation 34
34
Accepted
Ensure kinship allowance pilot provides financial support equivalent to foster carers.
Conclusion
In its upcoming pilot of a kinship allowance, the Department for Education should ensure that the financial support is on a par with that given to foster carers. It must evaluate the pilot at the earliest opportunity and roll it out across the country once it has proven to be effective. (Recommendation, Paragraph 83)
Government Response Summary
The government will launch a £40 million pilot kinship allowance in autumn 2025, providing support to 5,000 children at the same rate as foster care. The pilot will be independently evaluated concurrently, and findings will inform future national rollout decisions.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
the Department for Education should ensure that the financial support is on a par with that given to foster carers. It must evaluate the pilot at the earliest opportunity and roll it out across the country once it has proven to be effective. The Government announced £40 million to pilot a new Kinship Allowance in some local authorities in England in the 2024 Autumn Budget. This pilot is due to begin in autumn 2025 and support up to 5,000 children in kinship care. The pilot will provide all those caring for a child in a kinship arrangement with a Special Guardianship Order or a ‘lives with’ Child Arrangement Order, where the child would have otherwise been in care, an allowance paid at the same rate as foster care, in the pilot local authorities. The pilot will be independently evaluated, concurrently with the pilot, to find out how best to deliver financial support for kinship families. Decisions about future national rollout will be informed by the findings of the evaluation. The Government’s ambition is that all kinship carers will get the support they need to care for the children they support. It is important that the DfE first builds an evidence base to find out how best to deliver financial support for kinship families and that is why we are piloting this programme.