In October, we published the Kinship Care Practice Guide [1], the first in a series of national Practice Guides on a range of children’s social care topics. The Practice Guides set out actionable recommendations based on the strongest available evidence to support local areas in achieving the outcomes in the Children’s Social Care National Framework. The Kinship Care Practice Guide aims to support effective practice and improve how services for kinship families are commissioned, designed and delivered.
We know that putting evidence-based guidance into action in children’s services can be challenging. There is a consistent gap between the evidence about what works, and services that are designed, commissioned and delivered locally. To support local leaders to put the recommendations of the Kinship Care Practice Guide into action, we are partnering with 11 local authorities. We will work with these partners to develop implementation plans, troubleshoot challenges, encourage effective use of resources, and help them to create an environment in which evidence-based practice can flourish. This partnership will also generate learnings and insights that can be shared across national networks, helping other local authorities across the country to implement the Guide’s recommendations effectively, and ultimately, to improve outcomes for kinship families.
We are pleased to be working with the following local authorities:
- Achieving for Children (providing children’s services for Kingston, Richmond, and Windsor and Maidenhead)
- Cambridgeshire County Council
- City of Doncaster Council
- East Sussex County Council
- Leeds City Council
- Leicestershire County Council
- Luton Borough Council
- North Tyneside Council
- Stockton Borough Council
- Suffolk County Council
- London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Partner sites were selected after receiving expressions of interest, taking into account: geography; size; type of local authority; stage of their kinship care improvement journey; commitment to implementing evidence-based recommendations; and capacity to engage with Foundations and any regional networks.
“Here at Tower Hamlets we remain committed to supporting our kinship carers. The Practice Guide provides a benchmark that we can use to reflect on our efforts thus far; using the Kinship Care Practice Guide to roadmap our support and offer. We want a level playing field, that exemplifies our approach and actively balances out disproportionality. Our vision is for children to be cared for by family when it is safe for this to happen, for this reason, it is only right that we engage and become one of the one of the 11 implementation sites working to take forward the Kinship Care Practice Guide recommendations.” – Nji Oranu, London Borough of Tower Hamlets
“When I saw the Reflective Tool provided with the Kinship Care Practice Guide, and the questions it posed, my first thought was: ‘This is exactly what I need’.” – Kelda Claire, Leicestershire County Council
If you would like to be involved in future work on our Practice Guides, please get in touch with our team here.
- The national Practice Guides are developed by Foundations and commissioned by the Department for Education. To find out more visit the about page of the Practice Guides section on our website.