Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the independent review of children’s social care final report, published in May 2022, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of providing kinship carers with (a) paid time off work when a child starts living with them and (b) financial allowances at the same rate as foster carers.

The department recognises the invaluable and important role that kinship carers play in their kin children’s lives. The recently published Independent Review of Children’s Social Care set out recommendations on how the government can better support kinship families.

The department is now considering how to take these recommendations forward, including the recommendations to create a financial allowance and a new paid parental leave entitlement for kinship carers.

The department is working on an ambitious and comprehensive response to the recommendations in the review.