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Liverpool has become the first area in the country to launch a charter setting out how it will support kinship carers.
The Kinship Charter Liverpool has been written by Kinship Carers Liverpool in partnership with Liverpool City Council with both carers, children and young people sharing their experiences to develop the framework.
What are kinship carers?
Kinship carers look after a child or young person for another family member or a family friend; it is sometimes also known as family and friends care, connected care, relative care or kincare. It is estimated that there are about 180,000 children in the UK being looked after in a kinship family.
Liverpool has taken a human rights-based approach to supporting kinship carers, and this forms the basis of the new charter.
The charter states that kinship families need:
- Greater information
- Legal advice and representation
- To be listened to and to be included in the decision-making process
- Support
- Resources
- Professionals to recognise kinship carers’ unique needs.
The charter was signed on behalf of the council by Cllr Frazer Lake, Liverpool’s Deputy Mayor and cabinet member for children’s social care, at an official launch event on Friday 17 March 2023. West Derby MP Ian Byrne, a member of the cross-party parliamentary taskforce on kinship care, also attended the event.