Social care charity Kinship is planning to expand after the Department for Education (DfE) awarded it a £3m contract to develop a training and support programme for carers in England.
The charity, which has an annual income of £2.1m according to Charity Commission data, told Civil Society it plans to grow its staff headcount from 75 to around 100 to service the 18-month contract.
It will provide the country’s first national training and support programme for kinship carers, who are relatives or friends who raise children who cannot safely remain with their birth parents.
The charity said it would work with the National Association of Virtual School Heads, BookTrust, Anna Freud, Place2Be and Kinship Carers Liverpool to deliver the programme.
DfE’s tender was worth up to £9m, and Kinship said it was keen to see how the rest of the money would be allocated.
Working with charity partners
Lucy Peake, the charity’s chief executive, said: “There’s much for us to do to develop and roll out an ambitious training and support service, and ensure we help as many kinship carers in England as we can.
“We’re committed to rising to this challenge and working collaboratively with local authority, education and voluntary sector partners to do this.
“We look forward to hearing more from the government about how it will invest the rest of the £9m it committed for training and support for kinship carers.
“In the meantime, we will continue to press government to live up to the other ambitions set out in its Stable Homes Built On Love publication earlier this year.”
Care review
The contract was developed in response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care’s call on government to deliver a training and information package of support for kinship carers and their families.
Josh MacAlister, who led the review, is now chair of recently-merged £17.8m children’s charity Foundations.
The government-funded charity was formed after What Works for Children’s Social Care and the Early Intervention Foundation joined forces last year, following a recommendation by MacAlister’s review.
Speaking at an event hosted by NPC last year, MacAlister said it would be “very welcome to see a resurgence in the charity sector offering something for children and families in fostering and residential care” instead of private providers.
Related Articles
