Children In Kinship Care
Duties to support children in kinship care
In September 2024, the role of the Virtual School was extended to include non-statutory duties to promote the education of children in kinship care. Norfolk Virtual School has a strategic role to champion the attendance, attainment and progress of children in kinship care by:
- Raising awareness of needs and making visible the disadvantages that children in kinship care can experience
- Promoting practice that supports attendance and children's engagement in education
- Promoting practice that improves educational attainment and has high aspirations for children in this cohort.
As part of these new duties, we are extending our existing offer of information, advice and guidance to all kinship carers with Special Guardianship and Child Arrangements Orders regardless of whether they have previously been in care.
The forthcoming Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill sets out the government's intentions for the Virtual School to continue to promote the educational achievement of children with a social worker and those in kinship care by making these duties statutory to ensure that every local authority has a dedicated officer to champion the educational achievement of these children, helping to improve their school attendance, engagement and overall achievement. Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill 2024: policy summary - GOV.UK
Who is a child in kinship care?
Kinship care is where a child is being raised in the care of a friend or family member who is not their parent. This can be through the following arrangements, although this list is not exhaustive:
- Informal kinship care arrangements
- A private fostering arrangement in which some who is not a close relative of the child looks after the child for 28 days or more
- Where a 'lives with' Child Arrangements Order has been granted in favour of someone who is a friend or family member but is not the child's parent
- Where a Special Guardianship Order has been granted appointing a friend or family member as the child's special guardian
- Where a child is a 'looked after child' and each of the following apply:
- the child is being cared for by a friend or family member who is not their parent, and the friend or family member is approved as a local authority foster carer on either a temporary basis or following full assessment.
- Where an Adoption Order has been granted in respect of the child and, prior to making the order, the adopter was a friend or family member.
You can find a one-minute guide to kinship here: Kinship care in education - Norfolk Schools and Learning Providers - Norfolk County Council
Private Fostering
Please note if you know of a child who is being looked after by someone who is not their parent or a close relative and the arrangement is for more than 28 days, this is considered a private fostering arrangement. You have a responsibility to contact the Children's Advice and Duty Service (CADS) as soon as possible.
If you know of any child who is being cared for by someone other than their parents, please contact 0344 800 8020.
Further information can be found here: Private fostering - Norfolk County Council
Support available to schools, settings, families and professionals
Norfolk Virtual School Offer
Universal
- We offer signposting, information and the ability to speak to an adviser every Friday morning during term time. Please call 01603 303323 between 9:30 - 11:30am.
- We offer professional development including our new course Supporting the Education of Children in Kinship Care. Please see our Virtual School PD offer for dates.
- Participation events for children and young people in kinship care.
- Guide and support to schools in becoming trauma and attachment aware.
- Attendance at kinship carer support groups.
- Kinship Carers Essential Mobile Toolkit, with information about supporting kinship children in education.
Targeted
• Advice and signposting for individual children or young people with the guardian/kinship carer consent regarding educational matters. Our mailbox is [email protected] and is triaged every Wednesday during term time where an adviser will be allocated to respond.
• We offer school/setting visits to support senior leadership and designated teachers to understand the full breadth of the Virtual School offer of support and training. We offer advice in supporting the educational outcomes of the Virtual School cohorts.
Bespoke
• We offer support setting up our Voluntary Personal Education Plans (VPEPs) for children in kinship care with Special Guardianship Orders and Child Arrangements Orders regardless of whether they were previously in care and provide training and resources to ensure quality and support schools and settings in implementing. The team operates using a referral form completed by home and school/setting. This must be completed and returned to our mailbox [email protected]. Our mailbox is triaged every Wednesday during term time where an adviser will be allocated to support.
• Where appropriate, we support access for schools to engage in training for supporting interventions in schools that will benefit previously in care pupils.
• We work closely with our partners across Children's Services and will always work to ensure that the child or young person is being supported by the team best placed to advise.
Norfolk Support
The Norfolk Adoption and Kinship Support Team advice line is available to offer signposting and general advice for kinship carers. The Kinship Duty line is 01603 224131, and is available Monday to Friday, 9:00am - 12:30pm (excluding Bank Holidays). The team may also be reached via email at [email protected]
National Support available
Kinship Compass In your area - Kinship
Information, advice and support is available to kinship carers through the Kinship Compass platform provided by the charity, Kinship Kinship: Home | The Kinship care charity | England and Wales. You can use the website to find out what support is available to you, both locally and nationally. Information available includes:
- Support groups near you
- Workshops and events near you
- Support from your local authority
- Family and friends care policy
- Your Virtual School information
- Your nearest free legal clinic
- Foodbanks near you
- Adoption and special guardianship support fund
Kinship offer regular free training and events that can be found advertised through their website Free training and events for kinship carers | Kinship.
