Cumbria Fostering is supporting Kinship Care Week 2024 (7 to 13 October) with a campaign to celebrate more than 400 kinship carers across Cumbria who are raising children who are not their own.
The vital role played by kinship carers will be celebrated from next Monday and this year, the theme of Kinship Care Week is #ThisIsKinshipCare. It's an important time to help everyone understand what kinship care is. Anyone at any time could become a kinship carer – whether you’re a grandparent, aunt, uncle, sibling, cousin or family friend.
But it's not easy taking on a child who has had a difficult start in life when you are not prepared for it. So many kinship families and the challenges they continue to face go unrecognised. This year Cumbria Fostering is encouraging everyone to get behind the campaign and share #ThisIsKinshipCare to help raise awareness about the reality of kinship care and what life is like for kinship families.
Cumbria Fostering’s Kinship Care Team manager, Sam Moffatt, said: “Kinship Care Week is an opportunity for us to recognise the important people in children’s lives that step forward and care for a child when their own parents are unable to care for them. This decision by relatives can make a massive difference to these children’s lives, which we want to say a massive thank you for.”
Across the UK there are growing numbers of people who are becoming kinship carers – with more than 162,000 children being raised in kinship care in England and Wales alone.
In Cumbria we have more than 300 families with Special Guardianship Orders and more than 100 families currently fostering or being assessed to foster a family member. These figures don’t include children subject to child arrangement orders or private family arrangements.
Tracey Robbins, alongside her husband Mark, has been caring for her three grandchildren (aged 15, 14 and 8) for two years and was given a special guardianship order (SGO) 12 months ago.
The 53-year-old, who lives in Wigton, said: “There’s no greater purpose than to try to give a child the best start in life, it is so lovely to see them grow and flourish – since coming to me the children are loving just being children again, loving life.”
She admits it has not always been easy to parent for a ‘second time round’ but says her employer has been incredibly supportive of her new role. Tracey explained: “I work for the Eden Project in Cornwall and they have been amazing. When the children first came to us I had been working full time but they allowed me, not only to take some compassionate leave, but also to reduce my hours and were just so flexible – it was a huge help.
“It doesn’t seem fair that when you adopt you get time off to help your children settle into their new life but unfortunately there is nothing to support kinship carers in employment law.”
It is not only her employers that have been supportive, Tracey said that since gaining the SGO the family has had amazing support from the local authority; from the Kinship Care Team and also the virtual schools team, who she says have been ‘brilliant’.
She looks forward to attending her local support groups: “Whenever there’s a Coffee and Chat session for kinship carers I try to attend. It is so lovely to be in a room with other people who are in a similar situation to ourselves. You can talk to each other freely without constantly having to explain yourself. It is a ‘safe space’, with access to other people who know how complex the small things can sometimes be as a kinship carer. I always feel so much ‘lighter’ when I come out, it is just lovely.”
Attend a support group in your area
During the national awareness week Cumbria Fostering is inviting kinship carers to attend a ‘Coffee and Chat session’ in their local area, where they can meet up with our team and other carers:
Tuesday 8 October – Carlisle from 2pm-3.30pm
Wednesday 9 October – Kendal from 10-11.30am
Thursday 10 October – Whitehaven from 1.30-3pm
Friday 11 October – Barrow from 10am-12pm
If you would like to attend one of our events please email our Kinship Care Team at SGOsupport@cumbria.gov.uk for details of the venue.
Find out more about the support on offer for kinship carers at https://cumbriafostering.org.uk/kinship-care