Kinship Care Week
Kinship Care Week (7-13 October) Kinship carers are family or friends who step up, often during an unexpected crisis, to care for a child when their parents aren’t able to. This may be because the parent has died, is unwell, has gone to prison, is experiencing problems with drugs and alcohol – sadly, the list goes on.
Kinship carers are usually grandparents, aunts or uncles, brothers or sisters, a stepparent, stepbrother or stepsister, or someone who isn’t related but knows the child well. Whatever their relationship to the child, in that moment a commitment is made. To bring love and hope to a child who has experienced trauma, no matter what.
A short film about kinship care: https://youtu.be/-IDYP3lrmvE
There are many different types of kinship care: informal arrangements, foster care, private fostering, special guardianship, child arrangement orders, testamentary guardianship and adoption. Since April 2024, the government have commissioned a new national offer of advice, information, training and peer support for all kinship carers via Kinship (https://kinship.org.uk/).
Kinship is the leading kinship care charity in England and Wales who work with all kinship carers. Please promote the Kinship charity during Kinship Care Week. Also, promote Kinship Care Week in your schools and raise awareness by using the hashtags #ThisIsKinshipCare and #KinshipCareWeek.
To download a Kinship Care Week digital resource pack, go to.
You can also direct people to the Virtual School’s children in kinship care webpage for more information.