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Advice for Kinship Carers

The role of Virtual School for Kinship children is to champion the attendance, attainment and progress of children in kinship care.

On a strategic level, this means VSK will be:

  • Raising awareness of the needs and disadvantages of children in different types of kinship care arrangements across schools and other KCC services.
  • Promoting practice that supports attendance and engagement of kinship children in education.
  • Promoting practice that improves the educational attainment of children in kinship care.

In addition to this, VSK will be providing information and advice to carers, educators and others where necessary. VSK will:

  • Offer advice and information to carers with children living in Formal Kinship Arrangements* (those under a Special Guardianship or Child Arrangements Order) and sign-post them to other services for advice and support if necessary.
  • Offer advice and information to providers of early education, schools and providers of alternative provision in respect of individual children living in Formal Kinship Arrangements.
  • Make general advice and information available to early years settings and schools to improve awareness of the vulnerability and needs of children living in Kinship Care. This includes promoting good practice on identifying and meeting children’s needs and guidance.

*If your child was previously looked after by a local authority, prior to living with you under a special guardianship or child arrangements order, then they are known as ‘Previously looked after children (PLAC)’. Please refer to the PLAC section of the website for further information.

How can VSK help you?

VSK can advise carers and schools via a phone consultation, or email. Please complete the Initial Contact Form

If your child is living with you under and informal kinship arrangement, then unfortunately, we are unable to offer you direct advice.

We would strongly recommend that you contact Kinship Compass and reach out to your local Kinship Support Group for advice.

The information and advice that we provide schools around trauma informed practices, strategies and interventions that support individuals, could also support your child. So, whilst we are not directly advising a school about your child, the information we can provide for their kindship and other cohorts, will also support your individual child.

Please note, as part of the Initial Contact Form, you will need to attach evidence of the formal court order (Special Guardianship or Child Arrangements Order). If this is not possible, we would recommend that you speak with the education provision and ask them to contact us. Providing they have seen the court order and provided us with your written consent to contact us, we will be able to provide them with advice for you.

Other areas of support:

  • VSK have made available free subscriptions to all special guardians and professionals supporting them (including all school staff) to the PAC-UK Special Guardianship Support Service
  • VSK signpost schools and carers to Kinship Compass an independent information hub for kinship carers . Kinship have worked closely with NAVSH (National Association of Virtual School Heads) to create a range of freely available webinars around educational needs of kinship care children.
  • Attend one of the Kinship Peer to Peer Support Groups in your area. There is now a support group in every district within Kent, supported by one of the Kinship Team.

Depending on if your child has been looked after by a local authority prior to a Special Guardianship or Child Arrangements Order being granted (known as Previously Looked After) or not – they can be eligible for certain priorities, funds or systems within the education system and beyond. We have put together a PLAC SGO Kinship quick guide to help.

Further Information:

VSK can offer advice via email or over the phone to kinship carers (formal kinship arrangements only) and will suggest next steps for you to follow to ensure that your child is getting the right support; this may include signposting you to other services, websites, explaining educational processes, etc. Please complete the Initial Contact Form and one of the team will contact you.

For information regarding what personal data (information) we will hold about you and your child, how we collect, use and share the information please refer to the KCC Children’s Social Care Privacy Notice