Highlighting the support needs of kinship families

We are acutely aware of the unique challenges faced by kinship carers and, particularly through our work with Professor Richard Rose of Therapeutic Life Story Work International, we’ve seen that children in kinship care are often overlooked when it comes to the support they need in order to heal from trauma through life story work.

Alongside Richard, we were asked to review early iterations of Kinship’s recent report, Forgotten: Support for kinship children’s education and mental health, and provide input based on our own experience of supporting kinship families.

Kinship carers and their children have already taken part in many of Blue Cabin’s projects, including All About Me Creative Experiences, Feel Creative, Cool Things and The Studio of Fostered Heroes.

Our trauma informed creative activities are often targeted at the whole family and support outcomes including developing and strengthening of relationships as well as intrinsic impacts (like increased resilience and sense of belonging) and extrinsic impacts (like skills development and an enhanced love of the arts).

And now, because of this research carried out by Kinship, we have access to incredibly valuable, first-hand insights into the gaps in support for these children and young people and the particular issues they can face in overcoming early experiences of trauma.

Kinship’s most recent research, Out of Order, focuses on the urgent need to improve financial support for kinship carers and adds to our understanding of how we can best support those kinship families who take part in our projects.

And of course, all of Kinship’s work raises awareness of the fact that there are more than 141,000 children living in kinship care in England and Wales – three times the number living with unrelated foster carers.