This week (7-13 October) is #KinshipCareWeek, a campaign to celebrate the incredible role that kinship carers play in children’s lives and raise awareness of what life is like for kinship families.
Kinship care is when a child lives in the care of a family member, because their parents are not able to care for them. In the UK, there are more than 180,000 children living in kinship care.
Kinship carers play a vital role raising children and keeping them connected to their families and the people who love them, rather than entering or remaining in local authority care. However, many kinship carers miss out on the support or recognition they need and deserve. As a result, they and the children they care for often suffer considerable practical, financial and emotional challenges, including navigating often complex family relationships.
Many children are in kinship care as a result of parental substance use, and forty per cent of kinship carers responding to Kinship’s 2022 Cost of Loving annual survey of carers (p12) cited substance misuse as the reason the children in their care were unable to live with their parents. Adfam supports and advocates for families affected by substance use, including kinship families where a child is unable to live with their parents as a result of substance use. We know from our kinship support services and past work in Peterborough and Cambridgeshire the considerable and complex challenges kinship families affected by substance use face.
Many drug and alcohol treatment providers also see large numbers of informal arrangements put in place by families who rally round to help their loved one into and through treatment. While the arrangements families make are often informal and in many cases ad hoc, this does not mean that they are any less demanding. They involve an enormous emotional and financial commitment on the part of carers but because they take place below the radar, carers often feel unable or unwilling to access help. Furthermore kinship carers have to deal with the stigma attached to substance use, causing them to feel isolated and creating barriers to them accessing services.
Evidence from Dame Carol Black’s landmark review of drugs (p16) estimated the indirect costs of kinship care resulting from drugs at £73 million, and we believe that there are many millions more in both direct and in intangible costs too.
Vital reform is needed by the new government to recognise the value of kinship carers including those affected by substance use and the challenges they face, and to ensure their unique needs are addressed.
If you would like to learn more about our work supporting and advocating for kinship families affected by substance use, get in touch with us at admin@adfam.org.uk.
In addition to our work supporting kinship carers affected by substance use, Adfam is a member of the Kinship Care Alliance, which campaigns for kinship families to receive the right support and help in order for them to thrive. Read more about the work of the Kinship Care Alliance here.
For more information about kinship care week and how you can get involved visit the Kinship website.