This survey was constructed and undertaken by the charity Family Rights Group on behalf of the Cross-Party Parliamentary Taskforce on Kinship Care. The survey aimed to enable the Taskforce to have a better understanding of the experiences faced by kinship care households as a result of the Coronavirus crisis, and what urgent steps could be taken by Government, local authorities and other agencies to help.
Alongside learning from published research in the field and from previous surveys that Family Rights Group has conducted, the survey questions were also informed by: calls from kinship carers to Family Rights Group’s advice line; matters raised by members of the charity’s kinship carers’ panel and by other organisations within the Kinship Care Alliance, including Grandparents Plus, Kinship Carers UK and Liverpool Kinship Carers; and by kinship carers and young people who have participated in a series of discussion events hosted on behalf of the Parliamentary Taskforce on Kinship Care.
The Family Rights Group and CELCIS are extremely grateful to all the kinship carers who took the time to complete the survey and to both the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the John Ellerman Foundation whose generous grant funding made the research possible.
The first report of the Family Rights Group reported on the experiences of 671 kinship carers caring for 1029 kinship children, as well as an additional 333 birth children, across the UK during the Coronavirus crisis. The report was developed to support the Family Rights Group’s services, policy and campaign work; including the work of the Parliamentary Taskforce on Kinship Care and was sent to Government ministers to urge them to take immediate additional steps to support kinship care households during the crisis. It was also considered by the Kinship Care Alliance.
This supplementary analysis provides an in-depth analysis of the kinship carers in Scotland and provides the legal context to influence national and local kinship care policies, practices and services of local authorities and other public agencies.
