Kinship care

New Kinship Zone Pilot announced in North East Lincolnshire – read more.

Kinship care is when a child is looked after by family, close friends, or others already connected to them. It’s sometimes called ‘friends and family care’.

Read the current Kinship Care Offer

“The information, support and help has been helpful beyond measure.”
The support of the service and the monthly groups have helped us feel heard. Our family and friends are great but they don’t truly understand. We made a call to the children’s services and within three days had a meeting booked in.
Current kinship carer
“I don’t know why people don’t do it more!”
The support has been absolutely amazing and couldn’t have done it without them; they are always at the end of the phone, always treated me with respect, helped with a problem when needed.
Current kinship carer
“Our workers came like fairy godmothers.”

We had support with issues in education and in health, and much more. They are always available to answer questions and provide any support they can. Having the support of the team has changed our lives.
Current kinship carer
“It helped me feel heard, understood, and less alone.”
My Post Special Guardianship Support Coordinator has been exceptional throughout our journey. She has provided consistent, compassionate support during a challenging time.
Current kinship carer

Kinship Zone Pilot

North East Lincolnshire has been chosen as one of only seven areas in England to take part in a new national Kinship Zone pilot. The pilot provides a special allowance and extra support for kinship carers, and this Government‑backed scheme aims to help children stay safely within their family networks, offering carers the financial and practical support they need to provide stable, loving homes.

Before you apply, please read the application guidance (Word, 44KB) .

Apply now

Read the FAQ

The Kinship Allowance Pilot is a test‑and‑learn programme the government is testing in seven local authority areas, that will be known as Kinship Zones, across England, to understand whether paying eligible kinship carers an allowance equivalent to the Fostering National Minimum Allowance improves placement stability and outcomes for children.

The purpose is to build robust evidence about what support works best at scale for kinship families before taking decisions about any potential national offer.

The pilot is expected to run for three and a half years, with the first two years of funding confirmed. Decisions about later years will be made at the next fiscal decision point.

Yes. Payments are only available to eligible kinship carers residing in the seven Kinship Zones (Bexley, Bolton, Newcastle, North East Lincolnshire, Medway, Thurrock and Wiltshire).

You may continue to receive existing support. Kinship Zone local authorities will provide advice on how the pilot interacts with current local policies.

Where an SGO allowance has already formally ended, the pilot does not reinstate it automatically. Eligibility will depend on whether the carer meets the pilot criteria at the point of application and whether the relevant local authority is a Kinship Zone.

A: There is no automatic entitlement to the pilot, eligibility depends on:

holding a relevant legal order, and
living in, or being supported by, a Kinship Zone LA.

The pilot does not automatically restore previous SGO or other allowances.

No. The pilot is not a fostering scheme and does not require foster carer training.

Yes. Carers are not obliged to claim the allowance.

The allowance will be paid at the Fostering National Minimum Allowance rate.

The allowance is not means tested.

Receipt of the Kinship Allowance in pilot local authorities will not affect any of the following:

Universal Credit including the Child Element
- Child benefit
- Guardian’s allowance
- Tax-free childcare entitlements
- Pension Credit (except where the allowance is saved as capital)
- Housing Benefit for customers over state pension age (except where the allowance is saved as capital)

For more information, please speak to the kinship zone local authority.

Delivery begins on 1st April 2026. Local authorities will begin local outreach and engagement with local kinship families after the announcement.

Local authorities will lead local communication in the Kinship Zones. The department released a press release on 27^th February 2026. For more information: Government launches investment in support for kinship carers – GOV.UK

Local authorities in the seven Kinship Zones will lead local communication and outreach. They will inform eligible carers about how and when to apply and provide details after go‑live on 1 April 2026.

Eligible carers will receive the allowance for the duration of the funded pilot period in their area. Funding is confirmed for the first two years; later years depend on fiscal decisions.

Government has confirmed funding for the first two years, because this aligns with the current spending round. Like all multi‑year programmes, any funding beyond this period must be agreed through the next Spending Review, once fiscal decisions for future years are taken.

The pilot runs for three and a half years so that we can test what works at scale for kinship families and generate robust evidence across different local contexts. The programme has been deliberately designed as a test‑and‑learn approach, with a concurrent independent evaluation to understand impact, implementation, and value for money over time.

The government is confirming funding for the first two years now to provide certainty to partners while we test and learn. Decisions about later years will be taken at the next fiscal decision point. Publishing an indicative figure for later years could mislead families and partners when those numbers are not yet confirmed.

The seven local authorities were selected following an expression of interest process held last June. The applicants that passed the criteria where then randomly selected by an algorithm. Together, the seven local authority areas offer a useful mix of geography, demographics, and service models. This was intentional as the pilot is designed to test what works at scale in varied local contexts, so robust learning can be generated for future decisions.

As the programme is a time‑limited test‑and‑learn pilot, the aim was not to create a national offer but to select a set of areas whose data would collectively produce a robust evidence base. Lessons will be published and used to inform future policy decisions. You can find more information about the Expression of Interest process here: Kinship Allowance Pilot – GOV-UK Find a grant.

This is a time limited pilot to test what works at scale in a range of local contexts. Lessons will be published and will inform future decisions. Selection focused on readiness to deliver, need, and spread, to generate robust evidence rather than to create permanent geographic differences.

The Department expected to pilot this allowance in up to ten local authorities. However, the seven areas selected offer a combination of the strongest conditions for generating robust evidence across diverse local contexts while working within budget restraints.

We are grateful for the strong interest. We will share early learning and tools so that improvement may spread beyond the pilot sites. We will keep the wider sector informed through regular updates.

This is a significant allocation for kinship care within the children’s social care programme. The focus is on quality and outcomes rather than on headline figures. The pilot will generate evidence to inform future decisions.

The evaluation will assess the impact, implementation, and value for money of the Kinship Allowance Pilot in the Kinship Zones. The evaluation will determine whether the allowance improves outcomes for children and carers, reduces pressure on the care system, and represents good value for public money. It will also generate learning to inform future policy design and potential national rollout.

The evaluation will use administrative data from the National Pupil Database and local authority monitoring systems to track care arrangements, stability, formalisation, and children’s outcomes. It will also gather survey and qualitative data from kinship carers to understand their experiences and financial circumstances, alongside interviews and focus groups with local authority staff to explore how the allowance is delivered in practice.

The NKCA will act as a national champion for kinship care and will support the Kinship Zones by amplifying the aims of the pilot and helping raise awareness among kinship families. The NKCA’s role is to support national communication as well as local delivery, including supporting the development of Kinship Zone plans across the participating local authorities. The NKCA will highlight good practice that emerges from the pilot and will help promote lessons learned as they are published. Engagement with each Kinship Zone will be focused on visibility, helping families understand the purpose of the pilot, and supporting clear and consistent messaging across England. Local authorities will remain responsible for all operational delivery and local engagement.

Each Kinship Zone is expected to work with local voluntary and community organisations where they add value and can increase reach and trust.

Kinship carers who start receiving the allowance as part of the pilot will continue to receive the support they are entitled to for the duration of the funded period. Funding for the first two years is confirmed, and delivery begins on 1 April 2026.

The pilot is testing the allowance for kinship carers who have a legal order (a Special Guardianship Order or a Child Arrangement Order that says the child lives with the kinship carer). This helps us understand what impact an allowance has on the stability of the placement and the outcomes for the child or children. There are no current plans to expand the pilot to carers without a legal order.

Kinship carers outside the pilot can continue to access support from national organisations as well as local authority services. For support and guidance, you may wish to reach out to the Family Rights Group, or Kinship, a national kinship care charity who provide DfE-funded peer support, training and advice to all kinship carers in England. You can find more information about these programmes on www.kinship.org.uk.

The purpose of the pilot is to build the evidence needed to understand what support makes the biggest difference for kinship families. Rolling it out everywhere now, before that evidence is gathered, could lead to inconsistencies or unintended consequences. Testing the approach first allows the government to learn what works, what doesn’t, and how to make any future offer sustainable.

No decisions have been taken about national rollout yet. Funding for the first two years of the pilot is confirmed, and any future decisions will depend on what the evaluation shows and on future government spending decisions. The findings will be published so that families and the sector can see what has been learned.

Privacy notice (Word, 75KB)

About kinship care

What is kinship care?

Kinship care is when a child lives with relatives or close family friends because their parents cannot care for them.

How long will children be in my care?

Kinship care can be short‑term or permanent, depending on the child’s needs.

Who can arrange it?

It may be arranged by the Local Authority or agreed within the family.

Who can be a kinship carer?

Grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, step‑relatives, great‑grandparents, family friends or anyone close to the child.

Our priorities

We always put the child’s safety, wellbeing and best interests first, and support families to stay together where it’s safe to do so.

Types of kinship care

A kinship Foster Carer is someone who is either being assessed via Regulation 24 of the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review Regulations 2010, or has been assessed by the Local Authority Fostering Service to be a Registered Foster Carer for the child (The Children Act 1989, Guidance and Regulations Volume 4: Fostering Services). The child in this case would be a Child in our Care.

The assessment and approval process for family and friends who apply to be Kinship Foster Carers for a specific child in our care will be fully explained during the home visit.

Once approved as Kinship Carers, they will be allocated a Fostering Social Worker from within the Fostering Service to provide them with support and supervision. Kinship carers will receive fostering allowances as per all North East Lincolnshire registered Foster Carers for as long as they are caring for a child in our care.

While the child remains a child in our care, as a Kinship Carer they will be expected to co operate with all the processes that are in place to ensure that the child receives appropriate care and support, for example: – completing training, working with the child’s social worker and contributing to the child’s care plan.

Specific support may be required for Kinship Carers to ensure that they can meet the day-to-day requirements of being a registered Foster Carer. Support may include 1-1 support from a Fostering Social Worker on areas such a child play, support and guidance on areas such as housing, understanding of children needs where they have suffered trauma, support to attend groups and activities with a child alongside attendance at or 1-1 bespoke training.

Authority for day-to-day decision making about the child should be delegated to the carer, unless there is a valid reason not to do so. During the initial planning meeting delegated responsibilities and what is delegated to who, is discussed in more detail.

The parent makes the arrangement or a close family member steps in to help support the care of a child. The length of the arrangement is decided by the person with parental responsibility (PR) or someone who has taken out a legal order for the child.

The Local Authority does not have a duty to assess informal family arrangements, unless it appears necessary to the Local Authority that services may be necessary to safeguard or promote the welfare of a child in need. In such cases, the Local Authority has a responsibility under section 17 of the Children Act 1989 to assess a child’s needs and provide services to meet any assessed needs of the child.

Parental responsibility remains with the birth parents, but the carer may do what is reasonable to safeguard or promote the child’s welfare.

A Child Arrangement Order (CAO) is a Court Order which sets out the arrangements as to when and with whom a child is to live and spend time with. A CAO may give parental responsibility to the person in whose favour it is made, Parental Responsibility is shared with the parents.

Authority for the day-to-day decision making about the child should be delegated to the carers, unless there is a valid reason not to do so.

Child Arrangement Orders may be made in private family proceedings in which the Local Authority is not a party nor involved in any way in the arrangements. However, a CAO in favour of a relative or previous Kinship carer with whom the child was living with may be an appropriate outcome as part of a plan of permanence for a child in our care.

Should a carer with a Child Arrangement Order feel they require further support and advice then they should contact Children services asking for an assessment of support needs.

Should the child have been a child in our care immediately before the making of the order, than the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) may be accessed for therapeutic support for the child. This will be something which is discussed via the assessment of support needs that will be completed with the carer by a social worker.

Special Guardianship offers a further option for children needing permanent care outside their birth family. It can offer greater security without absolute severance from the birth family as in adoption.

Relatives may apply for a Special Guardianship Order after caring for a child for one year, however, if a Special Guardianship Order is part of the Local Authorities plan of permanence for a child, then the length of time caring for a child can be shorter, depending on the circumstances.

Special Guardians will have parental responsibility for the child which, while it is still shared with parents, can be exercised with a greater autonomy on day-to-day matters than where there is a Child Arrangements Order.

Where the child was a child in our care immediately prior to the making of the Special Guardianship Order, the Local Authority has a responsibility to assess the support needs of the child, parents and special guardians, including the need for financial support.

Once the Special Guardianship assessment is complete recommending a Special Guardianship Order for the child, a support plan will be devised by the allocated social worker for the child , outlining what support is available post order. A Special Guardian can contact the Fostering Service and ask for an Assessment of Support Needs at any point up until the child is 18 years of age, as long as the special guardian remains residing in NELC. If the Special Guardian does not live in NELC post 3 years of the order being granted, they can request support from the Local Authority in which they reside.

Upon the completion of a positive full assessment for a Special Guardianship Assessment, then North East Lincolnshire Council will provide carers with a letter outlining how they can access two hours of free legal advice with a solicitor of their own choosing.

Post Order support may include 1-1 support from a Support Worker on areas such as family time, life story work, support and guidance on areas such as housing, understanding of children needs where they have suffered trauma, support to attend groups and activities with a child alongside attendance at training.

The service has two Special Guardian Coordinators who offer monthly support groups to Special Guardians. This is promoted via a letter/ e mail and also on our social media platforms. This is an opportunity for carers to come together and share their experiences but is also an opportunity to get to know the Special Guardian Coordinators and also hear from guest speakers who may attend.

Should the child have been a child in our care immediately before the granting of the order than the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) may be accessed for therapeutic support for the child. This will be something which is discussed via the assessment of support needs.

How we will support you

We recognise the personal costs that many families make in order to care for children, so we want to help as much as possible by offering support.

Financial support

Families will be assessed and supported with any extra costs rising from becoming a carer.

Regular events

Events held in different areas of the borough, for Kinship carers can meet and widen their networks.

Coming soon

Support system

Signposting to national and local charities as well as a point of contact within the council.

Housing options

If there are any issues, we will work with Kinship carers and the housing team to look at other options.

If you are already a kinship carer

We understand that sometimes as Kinship carers, you may need some additional support or advice. If you do, there are different services and organisations you can get in touch with:

At the council

Special Guardianship Coordinators
You may be allocated a Social Worker dependent on your circumstances and child’s legal status
You or the child may be allocated a Family support worker, dependent on your circumstances and child’s legal status

Other charities and organisations

If you are not happy with the support provided to you to help you care for the child, please get in touch with us at [email protected] .

Legal framework

The Local Authority has a general duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need living within its area and to promote the upbringing of such children by their families. The way in which we fulfil this is by providing a range of services appropriate to those child’s assessed needs. This can include for example, financial, practical or other support.

It is important to note that the Local Authority does not have a general duty to assess all arrangements where children are living within their wider family or friends’ network rather than their parents, but it does have a duty where it appears that services may be necessary to safeguard or promote the welfare of a child in need.

Children in the care of the Local Authority under Section 31 of the Children Act 1989
S20 of the Children Act 1989 (states In both cases the children may be cared for within their family network, if the carers have been approved as Local Authority Foster Carers)
Fostering Regulations 2011 (approval for foster carers)
National Minimal Fostering Standards 2011 (how the Local Authority should support carers)
Regulation 24 of of the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review Regulations 2010 (allow for temporary approval of Kinship carer)
Adoption Orders and Special Guardianship Orders under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (legal arrangements for children to live with family or friends)
Children Act 1989 (Child Arrangement Orders)
Private Fostering Regulations 2005 (Private Fostering)

Contact details

01472 325545
[email protected]
Complete the form to apply for financial support under the pilot scheme

Kinship care

“The information, support and help has been helpful beyond measure.”

“I don’t know why people don’t do it more!”

“Our workers came like fairy godmothers.”

“It helped me feel heard, understood, and less alone.”