Scotland's vision for kinship care: our offer of support for families

4. Research And Engagement

Our vision and offer for kinship care has been informed by research and the lived experience of kinship carers, children and families. We also engaged with local authorities and local partners, including the third-sector, and drew on insights from earlier work by the Kinship Care Collaborative.

A working draft of the vision was published in December 2025 and further comment invited through a light touch consultation on Citizen Space, along with a further period of engagement with kinship carers and children and young people.

What the research tells us

Emerging CELCIS work and published Scottish statistics indicate that kinship care, when well supported, can sustain family, school and community connections, reduce placement disruption and help continuity of identity. Barriers commonly highlighted include variable access to advice and income maximisation, uneven local support offers, challenges navigating legal/assessment pathways, housing issues and maintaining family relationships in difficult circumstances. These findings shape our vision and offer which focus on early, proportionate support and clearer local delivery expectations.

Children and young people’s perspectives

Listening to babies, children and young people is central. For pre-verbal children we commit to ‘voice of the infant’ practice, for older children, participation feedback emphasises the need for timely information, stability of relationships, and support for family time where safe. Across ages, young people want professionals to explain decisions clearly and to evidence how their views informed those decisions.

Following the publication of the draft vision, we heard from children and young people with experience of kinship care through face to face engagement and through organisations responding to the consultation through Citizen Space. They told us they wanted more regular communication and greater say around decisions that affect their lives. Some said that infrequent contact or changes in the professionals supporting them made it harder to build trusting relationships, leaving them unsure about what to expect.

They also said they wished adults understood more about living in a kinship family: that more awareness is needed; that genuinely listening to children’s feelings makes a real difference; and that stigma, whether in schools, services, or wider communities, can significantly affect them. Children and young people found it distressing to be in the middle of difficult family interactions. They stressed that support should be designed not only for carers but also for the children and young people who grow up in kinship families, whose needs may differ from their peers.

Kinship carers

To inform the working draft of the vision we met carers across Scotland through peer support groups in urban and rural areas and drew on professional insights from local services and The Kinship Care Advice Service for Scotland (KCASS) management information.

Carers consistently highlighted: (i) the need for clear information at the outset (ii) reliable income maximisation and practical help (iii) straightforward access to emotional/therapeutic support and (iv) better coordination between services (health, education, social work). Further detail is at Annex A.

We revisited carers after the publication of the draft vision statement in December. Carers welcomed the vision and said they thought it addressed the challenges they had shared with us. They were clear, however, that the key test is delivery: they want to see practical changes in how families access support, clearer information and advice early on, and more consistent support across Scotland - particularly at transition points where help can fall away. They hoped that it would progress to becoming reality. Further detail is at Annex B.

Stakeholder workshops and system insight

To inform the working draft, we also held workshops with local partners and national stakeholders, including members of the Kinship Care Collaborative. It was clear that overall there is a great deal of willingness to make things better for kinship families. A variety of views were expressed about how that could be done, and local partners raised points around ensuring the right support at the right time, the impact of different legal orders on support, the definition of kinship care, the role of GIRFEC, the role of the community.

Feedback from local authorities, professional bodies and practitioners – both through pre-publication engagement and written consultation responses, highlighted the relational nature of their work with kinship families and the importance of having the time and capacity to build and sustain trusted relationships. Respondents noted workforce pressures and increasing complexity of need and emphasised that successful delivery of the vision will depend on realistic expectations, clear roles and responsibilities, manageable workloads and proportionate guidance to support consistent practice.

Some enablers to existing barriers were also identified including: clearer local ‘kinship offers’, common templates/guidance, proportionate data for improvement and stronger local authority – health collaboration in the early years.

We have used all of the above research and engagement to inform this final vision and offer for families.

Scotland’s National Vision For Kinship Care

Our vision is of a Scotland where children and young people living in kinship families receive the right support, at the right time, so they can thrive and reach their potential. Kinship care continues to be routinely explored as a positive place for children to be cared for and, importantly, is recognised and valued as a vital part of society.

Kinship carers and the children living with them are supported through joined-up, whole family support within their local communities, guided by the 10 principles of family support^[4] set out in The Promise, which emphasise early help, respect, and working alongside families. Children in kinship care are listened to and involved in decisions about their lives, with their rights respected and upheld.

There is consistent access to support across Scotland, irrespective of where families live and the legal route of the arrangement. Support is appropriate, high-quality help based on the unique needs and experiences of kinship families, delivered by a confident, supported workforce working effectively together across services.

Our vision applies to all kinship families in Scotland. This includes those families where the child is ‘looked after’; those with a legal status/orders such as a Section 11, and those in private arrangements.

It is important to recognise that kinship carers are not a homogeneous group. The vision and offer (set out in section 6) aims to improve recognition and support for all kinship families, while respecting these different legal routes and related responsibilities. It does not change legal entitlements or duties under Part 13 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 and the Kinship Care Assistance (Scotland) Order 2016 or those who are looked after in kinship care.

However, we recognise that the interactions between different legal routes (including looked after status, Section 11 orders and private arrangements) can be complex and are not always well understood by families. Through this vision and associated guidance, we will improve clarity about legal routes, implications for support, and how families can access advice at key decision points.

This means that in addition to the vision and offer, local authorities have additional duties to some children and young people. For example, young people who are ‘looked after away from home’ – living with foster carers, kinship carers or in residential care – on or after their 16th birthday have legal rights and entitlements to stay in the same place with the same carers up until their 21st birthday. There are also different duties on local authorities and corporate parents if a child or young person is looked after.

The Foundations

Our new vision and offer to kinship families is underpinned by the universal principles of GIRFEC, UNCRC and built on the 5 foundations^[5] set out in The Promise. It acknowledges the support and good practice already in place for kinship families and seeks to strengthen this through continued partnership and shared effort. Collectively, leadership and delivery will help us Keep The Promise and reduce child poverty by 2030.

Voice: Being Heard and Empowered

The voice of kinship families: babies, infants, children, young people and the adults who are caring for them – must be at the heart of decision making nationally, locally and especially where it affects their everyday life, and future. Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) approaches are a key way to empower children and families and should be considered, where safe and appropriate, when kinship care is being explored or reviewed.

Access to information, advocacy and independent legal advice also helps ensure that children and families understand their rights and how they can access them. This includes clear signposting to legal aid where available and practical support to understand the implications of different legal routes. Kinship carers should be enabled and empowered to access the support they need to care for the child they are looking after, and the help they need to look after themselves.

Family: Benefits of Kinship Care

Kinship care - living with relatives or close family friends – is a vital way to maintain family life. For ethnic minority families in particular, it can provide essential continuity of culture, language, beliefs and community connections that are central to children’s identity and wellbeing. It should be actively considered as an alternative place for children and young people to live if they cannot live with their birth parents, and it meets the needs of the child. International evidence^[6] generally demonstrates that kinship care can retain a sense of family, identity and heritage and may increase the chances of children maintaining critical connections such as staying in the same school and community.

Evidence^[7] also indicates (with variation by context) that when well supported, children in kinship care often feel settled and safe and experience strong continuity of relationships, schooling and community. Kinship care can also bring with it the increased possibility for reunification with the birth family where appropriate, and this requires careful, supported planning. The strong policy emphasis on kinship as the first consideration has existed explicitly in Scotland since 2007.

Kinship care often involves navigating complex and emotionally demanding family relationships. Carers may be balancing their role as a grandparent, aunt, sibling or family friend while managing contact arrangements and, in some cases, high levels of conflict or trauma. Support must recognise this relational complexity. This includes access to mediation, therapeutic support and clear professional boundaries to protect children and carers from harm, while ensuring, importantly, that birth parents can access support to enable safe and appropriate relationships wherever possible.

Care: Equity of support

As The Promise states, “support must be offered freely without the kinship carer having to fight for it.” Support should be based on the unique family needs of children and carers – not the legal status of the arrangement. Families must receive the right support at the right time, with a flexible “step up, step down” approach across the childhood journey.

Kinship families should be able to access holistic, place based, whole family support. This support should be practical, emotional and financial support and in line with the 10 principles of family support set out in The Promise. It should also take account of cultural, ethic or other diversity needs.

Care should have the infant, child or young person’s wellbeing, views and interests at the centre with tailored support for the kinship carer(s) to help them better meet the physical, emotional and practical needs of the child. This should be captured in the Child’s Plan where applicable, or a separate record, as it helps kinship families flourish and stay together.

Sustaining kinship arrangements requires recognising carer wellbeing as fundamental. Access to proportionate respite and emotional support helps prevent crisis and protects stability for children.

People: High quality advice, support and information

To ensure that carers can provide the trauma-informed and nurturing care required by children in kinship care, and support educational, physical, emotional and mental health needs, they must have access to high-quality advice, support and help. This should be both practical and emotional. Support should be available at key points in a child’s journey into and through kinship care, especially at the outset and during transitions, and continue on a proportionate basis in line with the GIRFEC approach and the principle of minimum necessary state intervention.

Supporting kinship carers in this way enables strong, meaningful and sustained relationships, and helps maintain stable, loving homes for children. Delivering this consistently will depend on a confident, skilled children’s services workforce with the knowledge and capacity to respond to families’ needs appropriately.

Scaffolding: Role of partners

Support for kinship families should come from a range of providers, and there is a role for many different organisations. While some legal duties rest with local authorities, this is not solely a social work responsibility. Partners across housing, education, health, justice, the third sector, community organisations, and volunteers all have a role to play in delivering the holistic, place-based, whole-family support that kinship families need and deserve. Corporate parents only have particular legal duties to those who are looked after by the local authority.

One of the most pressing challenges facing kinship families is housing, and we recognise that this issue affects many families across the country. However, some of the problems facing kinship families are systemic and complex and that is why there is a strong shared commitment across sectors to improve outcomes for kinship families where possible.

The Government expects a multi-agency approach to service design and delivery, with Children’s Services Planning Partnerships and GIRFEC playing a central role. There is no one-size-fits-all model. Social work involvement in kinship families should be guided by the same principles that apply to any family. Kinship families, especially those without social work involvement, should be able to access universal services, third sector support, and community-based resources such as existing family centres. All support must be free from stigma and judgement, widely promoted, and easily accessible.

Kinship carers often tell us they have to repeatedly explain their caring role and retell difficult personal histories to access everyday services. We will explore a consistent way for kinship carers to evidence their role when interacting with services such as schools, health and housing – starting with a standard national confirmation approach – so families are not disadvantaged. Over time, we will consider how this can align with wider work to improve secure information sharing and digital access to public services, subject to feasibility and data protection requirements.

Kinship carers have also told us that, without adequate workplace support, they are often forced to leave their jobs or retire early to care for a child. This not only places significant financial strain on families but also results in the loss of valuable skills and experience from the workforce. Crucially, many carers have emphasised that they value and enjoy their work and would continue in their roles if they received the right support.

To address this, we are working with employers across Scotland to promote the adoption of Kinship‑Friendly policies, including offering additional paid family leave for kinship carers

In the meantime, the Scottish Government is leading by example, providing extra paid leave to its own staff who become kinship carers, and we are encouraging organisations across Scotland to follow suit.

How this vision will make a difference

This vision is a crucial step in transforming how Scotland recognises and supports kinship families.

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 to support kinship families effectively. This will include engagement with the National Social Work Agency in relation to the distinct learning and development needs of the social work workforce, alongside consideration of the wider children’s services workforce. Any profession-specific development will align with existing regulatory and workforce frameworks. This will include engagement with relevant national bodies to understand the current workforce baseline, role clarity and development needs, where this is necessary to inform implementation.

This would take into account the different contexts in which services operate. We are mindful that the needs and challenges vary significantly across Scotland, including in rural and island areas where services may be more limited, travel times longer, and access to specialist support more difficult. Ensuring the vision is deliverable will require tailored approaches that reflect these local realities.

No additional statutory duties will be commenced without consideration of workforce capacity, sequencing and resource implications, and engagement with local authorities and other partners.

Delivery of the vision and offer

We know everything cannot be delivered straight away.

We recognise wider concerns about realism and resourcing. 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 and wider reforms underway in the sector.

The delivery plan will distinguish actions that can be progressed immediately through clearer guidance, shared templates and improved coordination, from those that require legislative change, workforce expansion or additional investment. This will help ensure expectations on local authorities and partners are clear, resourced and delivery is sequenced in a way that is aligned with workforce capacity.

The delivery plan 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 have distinct legal duties and workforce planning cycles, including for different kinship care cohorts. Relevant national bodies will be engaged early in the development of the delivery plan to ensure alignment with existing workplans and capacity.

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.