Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department offers to grandparents and other older people who act as kinship carers.

The Department for Education does not hold information on the number of grandparents who provide care to their grandchildren.

The Department issued ‘Family and Friends Care: Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities’ in 2011.[1] This guidance is clear that children and young people unable to live with their parents who are in the care of family and friends should receive the support that they and their carers need to safeguard and promote their welfare, whether or not they are looked after. It sets out a requirement on local authorities to develop clear, easily accessible policies to describe how they will assess and support children in the care of family and friends.

[1] www.gov.uk/government/publications/letter-from-edward-timpson-on-statutory-guidance-for-family-and-friends-care