Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to introduce a right to paid employment leave to support kinship carers.

The department recognises the challenges that many kinship carers face in continuing to work alongside the pressures of taking in a child, and we believe they should be supported to remain in work where possible.

Kinship carers are likely to benefit from additional support and flexibility from their employers to help them balance work with providing the best possible care. Our guidance for employers, ‘Kinship Carers in the Workplace’, sets out best practice for supporting kinship carers at work.

The department will join a small number of private sector employers in offering a pay and leave entitlement to all eligible staff who become kinship carers.