Scotland's Vision for Kinship Care: Our Offer of Support for Families - For engagement and consultation

1. Ministerial Foreword

I am delighted to share with you our ‘working’ vision for kinship care in Scotland and offer of support for families. I am now asking you to engage further with us to shape and refine the vision and offer, helping make a positive difference to the lives of children and young people, and delivering concrete improvements for kinship families.

This working vision highlights the positive role kinship care plays in enabling children to remain within their family network, and the need to recognise nationally that kinship care is a vital and valued form of care in Scottish society.

Every child deserves to grow up in a safe, loving, and stable home, and kinship carers are a crucial part of making this possible—often stepping in at a moment’s notice to provide care, security, and continuity for children within their family and friend network. The commitment from kinship carers is extraordinary and reflects the very best of our values: compassion, resilience, and community.

This commitment underpins our approach, which is rooted in the principles of Getting It Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) and our pledge to Keep The Promise. It also aligns with the central mission of this Government to tackle child poverty.

Kinship care is often the best way to maintain a child’s sense of identity, belonging and connection with their family and community. We know from research and good practice that children thrive when they remain connected to their families and communities. But we also recognise that carers face unique challenges: financial pressures, emotional strain, and navigating complex systems. That must change.

Kinship care is a journey and it is crucial that kinship families receive the support they need, when and where it’s needed. Our working vision and offer is about families, public, third sector and community services working together to deliver positive outcomes for our children and their families

We know there are challenges, such as pressures on public spending, and workforce capacity issues which mean we cannot deliver everything straight away or at the same time. Therefore, it is critical that we sequence the delivery of changes in a way that is realistic and affordable, and we want to work with local partners and kinship families to co-develop a plan which ensures that children and kinship families get the support they need at the right time and in the right way.

I want to end by personally thanking kinship carers and practitioners across Scotland who dedicate so much to providing safe, loving homes for children and young people. Please take the time to give us your views on this vision and offer and help shape the future of kinship care in Scotland.

Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise