This week is Kinship Care Week, celebrating the amazing role these carers provide in children’s lives and our society from Monday 3 to Friday 7 October.
Kinship care is when a child lives full-time or most of the time with a relative or friend who isn’t their parent, usually because their parents aren’t able to care for them. Through their support children can stay within their family network, providing stability.
Together with members of the Kinship Care Alliance, including Derby City Council, local authorities, and other partners, the national charity Kinship has helped coordinate fun ways to celebrate the work of these carers during this year's #KinshipCareWeek.
This year’s celebration theme is ‘Kinship Memory of the Year’. Carers have been encouraged to share on social media channels their best memory from the last year, whether a family day at the beach, a birthday, a picnic or helping a child ride a bike, read a book, or any other memorable activity or milestone.
On Wednesday 5 Oct at Markeaton Park, Derby City Council will host a celebratory tea party to thank our Kinship Carers. The event will include family activities and the opportunity to share their incredible stories.
It’s been a momentous year for kinship care, with unprecedented attention from decision-makers, as the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care made investment and better support for families a key focus of its recommendations.
But many kinship families still feel unrecognised, undervalued, and unsupported, so raising awareness of their important role and the challenges they face is crucial to building understanding and getting them the support they need.
Councillor Evonne Williams, Derby City Council’s Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Skills, said:
Kinship carers will often go through many challenges and sacrifices to keep children in a stable family environment and we recognise the hard work they do. Kinship Care Week is a great opportunity to raise awareness and celebrate these often-hidden families and highlight the changes needed to meet their diverse needs, which bring about better outcomes for the children.
Dr Lucy Peake, Chief Executive Officer of Kinship, said:
Kinship carers make huge sacrifices to keep children within loving, secure, and stable families and the week is an opportunity to recognise the crucial roles they play in children’s lives and our society.
This Kinship Care Week offers us the chance to celebrate the incredible difference kinship carers make and call upon the Government to urgently implement the recommendations in the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care and give kinship carers the support they desperately need, to enable kinship families to thrive.
Dr John Simmonds OBE, Chair of The Kinship Care Alliance and Director of Policy, Research and Development at CoramBAAF said:
For most children, when their parents experience a crisis, their first question is whether they can stay with a family member until the parental problems are resolved. The commitment that families have towards their child’s relatives is strong and long-lasting.
Rarely acknowledged is the challenge and complexity in caring for the child or children - the major changes of daily routines, housing, finances and anxiety about the parents. These issues are often not addressed by services, and this can create more tensions and stress.
Kinship Care Week marks the devotion, determination and resilience of kinship carers, whatever their circumstances. There cannot be a more important acknowledgement and one that needs to be responded to with improved services and resources.