Opinion: Celebrating Nottinghamshire kinship carers
By Councillor Rory Green, Cabinet Member for Children and Families.
Every year in October kinship care week is celebrated nationally, and I am really proud of the work we do to provide support locally.
In Nottinghamshire, our kinship carers do a fantastic job of looking after children when their birth parents are unable to.
When a birth parent is unable to care for their child, the child may live full-time or most of the time with a relative, friend or connected person, and that person is known as a kinship carer.
Kinship carers are the grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, family friends and former foster carers who step in to care for children so they can stay with people they already know. Each kinship family is different with some having special guardianship orders, child arrangement orders or informal/private arrangements.
At the council we have a fantastic kinship team which is on hand to provide support and advice when needed, to all the kinship carers in the county. At any one time we support around 150 young people and their kinship families.
Since being elected to this role it has been a privilege for me to have met some of our kinship carers and hear their stories about how they’re making a difference to children in our county.
Our team of dedicated social workers, family workers and welfare rights officers offer targeted support, general advice, and connect families to local or national support groups and advice.
Some of the support we offer includes:
- Reviewing special guardianship order support plans, or plans for families on other legal orders
- Information and guidance to prepare you for being a kinship carer and to support you once the child is in your care
- Advice regarding kinship allowances, benefits entitlements and education entitlements
- A phoneline and email address during office hours and a dedicated kinship website, alongside out of hours support.
The Nottinghamshire Plan commits us to ‘providing the right support for families to reduce the need for vulnerable children to go into foster or residential care’, something that I am keen to ensure we do with the best interest of the children in mind.
We have also commissioned the charity, Kinship, to provide independent, virtual support to Nottinghamshire kinship families with its reach programme.
To speak to the team, please contact our kinship support service on either 0115 804 1407 or [email protected].