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

6. Scottish Offer to Kinship Families

Kinship carers play a vital role in providing safe, loving homes for children and young people, where they cannot live with their parents. We recognise that where children are not being looked after by the local authority, not all kinship carers, want, or require intensive support, but many kinship carers in these situations tell us they feel unrecognised, under-supported and sometimes stigmatised.

Our Scottish offer – which is subject to further engagement and consultation and may change – is informed by research and the voices of children, young people and carers. It sets out the basic level of support that every kinship family should be able to expect, wherever they live in Scotland, and regardless of the legal status of their arrangement. If a child or young person is looked after by the local authority in a kinship care arrangement they may already be accessing this support, as well as there being other duties placed on the local authorities. For those kinship families where there is no local authority involvement, this offer is not about increasing unnecessary statutory interference in private family life – instead it aims to increase support to kinship families who need and choose it.

In this section, some commitments reflect existing duties and services that we want to strengthen, others will require changes to legislation or guidance. All legislative proposals are subject to approval by the Scottish Parliament and may change depending on what happens as it progresses through stage two and three of the parliamentary process.^[4]

Scottish offer to kinship families

1. Voice – Listening to and amplifying lived experience

Babies, infants, children, young people and kinship carers must have a meaningful say in the decisions that affect their lives and in how services are designed and delivered.

Our commitments:

• Children and young people in kinship care, and those who have experience of kinship care, will have improved access to independent advocacy support, through legislation and statutory guidance.
• A universal definition of “care experience” will be developed (through legislation and subsequent guidance). This will include those with experience of kinship care and will help to raise awareness, reduce stigma and improve consistency in support and understanding of care experience across public services.
• We will promote positive recognition of kinship care through awareness raising, improving understanding among professionals, including health and education, and the public.
• Life journey work will be embedded as good practice in kinship care to help children understand their story and strengthen identity and belonging.

2. Family – Support that keeps families together

Often kinship care is about sustaining family relationships and navigating tricky family dynamics. Families must be able to access timely, proportionate help that reflects their individual and unique circumstances.

Our commitments:

• Through legislation, kinship families will have the right to request, or be proactively offered, a holistic family-focused assessment of wellbeing to identify strengths and support needs early (in line with the GIRFEC approach and National Practice Model). This could be carried out by the local authority, for example by family workers, and we are exploring the feasibility of delegating this to third sector partners – detail will be set out in statutory guidance.
• The assessment of wellbeing and any agreed support would be captured within existing GIRFEC processes – in most cases, the Child’s Plan or another existing multi-agency plan. Where there is no existing plan, there would be a written record of the assessment and offer of support for the family.
• We will extend and clarify, in law, and statutory guidance the range of supports available as Kinship Care Assistance (KCA) to include:
  • Income maximisation and financial support (including clear interaction with benefits)
  • Information, advice and guidance
  • Emotional and therapeutic support (e.g. counselling, mediation, trauma-informed services)
  • Peer and community support networks
  • Learning and development opportunities
  • Practical and material assistance (e.g. household adjustments, transport, respite)
  • Transitional and continuing support as children move between arrangements
• Kinship families will be supported to maintain and strengthen relationships withparents, siblings and wider family where it is safe and, in the child’s, best interests.

3. Care – Stability, fairness and equity

Every kinship family should experience equitable support, taking account of rural dimensions, regardless of where they live or the legal status of their arrangement.

Our commitments:

• Through legislation, Ministers will require local authorities to publish the rates of payments paid to both foster and kinship carers, supporting efforts to ensure national parity of allowances, in line with the Scottish Recommended Allowance (SRA).
• Young people in kinship families who were looked after but left care before age 16 will have a legal right to apply for aftercare from age 16 up to age 26, subject to an assessment of their needs through legislation.
• Local partners will be expected to publish a local kinship care offer, setting out how the national offer is delivered locally, taking account of local needs and priorities and building on existing services and subject to available resources, with national support to reduce duplication.
• Kinship families will benefit from access to continuing support as children move from looked after to Section 11 kinship care arrangements, avoiding abrupt loss of help. While statutory kinship care assistance applies only to those with a Section 11 order, local partners should seek to avoid cliff-edges in support for other kinship families wherever possible.

4. People – Skilled, connected and supported communities

Kinship carers and practitioners need access to learning, peer networks and professional advice to sustain high-quality care.

Our commitments:

• Local authorities will be encouraged to strengthen dedicated kinship care expertise (for example through specialist kinship teams or lead practitioners).
• Kinship carers will be informed about the offer of support from the Named Person or Lead Professional where there is a Child’s Plan, so that assessment and support for the child and family are co-ordinated.
• We will pilot Kinship Co-ordinators, trusted local professionals offering one-to-one support and help to kinship carers across services such as education, health and housing, as well as linking into local community groups. This could involve adapting existing initiatives/services. Details, including cost, will be scoped out with local partners in advance of piloting to avoid duplication of roles and add value.
• Access to bespoke trauma training for kinship carers, developed as part of the National Trauma Transformation Programme, to help carers provide trauma-informed care
• Guided by partners and kinship carers we will develop further information or learning resources that would help them better support the children and young people they are looking after.
• We will pilot opportunities for experienced foster carers who no longer foster full-time to mentor new kinship carers and offer short, child-centred breaks.
• Practitioners working with kinship families will have access to shared learning resources, communities of practice and training, so that support is consistent and grounded in evidence and lived experience.

5. Scaffolding – A coordinated and sustainable system

To make this offer real, delivery must be underpinned by robust structures, resources and partnerships.

Our commitments:

• Local delivery will be co-ordinated through Children’s Services Planning Partnerships (CSPPs), ensuring alignment across agencies and integration with whole family support and child poverty planning.
• Implementation will be sequenced through a costed national delivery plan, developed collaboratively with local partners and those with lived experience.
• We will actively facilitate sharing of good practice and innovative ideas between housing and social work professionals to tackle some of the challenges faced by kinship families.
• We will continue to develop guidance, templates and data improvements to promote consistency and reduce administrative burden.
• Progress will be tracked, using existing reporting mechanisms where possible, with regular reporting on milestones and outcomes for children and families.
• We will explore what more needs done to ensure a clear and understandable kinship policy and legislative landscape, and the cost/benefits of any changes.
• We will redesign the Kinship Care Collaborative to help us deliver the vision and offer.

6. Kinship Advice Service for Scotland (KCASS) — a national “first stop” for kinship families

KCASS will be further embedded as a universal, nationally promoted route to clear, consistent advice and referrals, aligned with The Promise and local Children’s Services Planning.

Our commitments:

• National advice hub: KCASS acts as a national advice hub, providing timely, rights-based guidance and referrals into local services (LA kinship teams, income maximisation, education, health, housing, third sector).
• Outreach: A co-ordinated awareness push so every kinship carer (formal and informal) and every key professional (social work, schools, health, advice agencies) knows how to access KCASS.
• No wrong door: Standard referral/sign-posting protocols so local partners and KCASS can hand families off seamlessly; shared scripts/templates to reduce variation.
• Inclusive access: Phone, web, and community outreach; accessible formats and languages; targeted campaigns for under-served groups (e.g. informal carers with no current LA involvement).
• Insight to improvement: KCASS provides anonymised data/insight on recurring issues (e.g. allowances, housing barriers, school supports) to inform national policy and local offers.
• KCASS will act as a national hub for practice support: sharing learning, resources and training opportunities for practitioners working with kinship families.

How this offer will evolve

This offer is a first step in transforming how Scotland recognises and supports kinship families. It is subject to further engagement and consultation – planned for early 2026 - with carers, children, young people and delivery partners to ensure it is meaningful, achievable and aligned with The Promise. A final vision and offer will be published by spring 2026.

Workforce and resourcing

We are aware that the vision and offer will have resource and workforce implications, especially for local authorities and third sector partners. We will work with national and local partners to consider how the needs of the workforce can be met, developing skills at a practice level, in order to best support kinship families, linking this to the future National Social Work Agency. It has been suggested that a scoping exercise, or similar, may be needed to understand the current workforce baseline and clarity around roles, requirements and training needs.

Delivery of the vision and offer

We know everything cannot be delivered straight away.

We intend to co-design, with partners and those with lived experience, a phased and costed delivery plan that is realistic, with clear timelines and milestones, sequenced according to resources and impact. It will align with The Promise routemaps. There will be a key role for a redesigned Kinship Care Collaborative.

The co-design work will be undertaken during May to September 2026, with a delivery plan published in autumn and implementation on a sequenced basis thereafter. We will draw on different tools to support this, including the theory of change, and consider mapping what services are currently available to understand what new/adapted services might be needed to help local authorities and third sector partners to implement the vision and offer. Absolutely key is the sequencing of delivery based on the capacity of local partners. We will also consider consistency of support across the different caregiver groups where it meets the needs of the children and family.

Roles and responsibilities

The delivery plan will also set out clear roles and responsibilities recognising that successful implementation of the vision and offer will require the commitment and support from many partners including local authorities, health, education, housing, justice, social security, the third sector and communities. We recognise that different partners may have different legal duties, including for different kinship care cohorts.

Monitoring and governance

We will also consider how best to track progress and measure impact. Data collection and strong evaluation will be key with read across to the existing Promise Progress Framework and Promise route maps.

In line with this, we are committed to gaining a comprehensive understanding of all kinship care arrangements in Scotland, including kinship placements where the child is no longer considered “looked after". By collaborating with local authorities to gather data on kinship care families in their areas, we aim to create a more complete and accurate picture of kinship care across Scotland. These insights will help shape policy decisions that better support the wellbeing, stability, and positive outcomes of all children and families in kinship care.'

We want to ensure accountability and governance, including feedback loops for kinship families. We will consider how best to do this in a way which utilises existing forums and stakeholder groups both within the Scottish Government and externally, so we avoid duplication, link to wider work on child poverty, early child development and whole family support, making best use of peoples’ energies and efforts.