Contribution
I rise to speak to Amendments 44, 45 and 48, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Storey. I will pick up on some of the other issues, as they flow between the amendments. All these amendments speak to the desire, which the Government share with others in this House, to ensure that children in kinship care and their families get the support they need to thrive.
Amendment 44 seeks to extend pupil premium eligibility to pupils in England who are living in kinship care, as the noble Lord outlined. As stated in Committee, we are providing over £3 billion of pupil premium funding to improve the educational outcomes of disadvantaged pupils, including pupils looked after or previously looked after by a local authority. Therefore, while kinship arrangements are not part of the pupil premium eligibility, some children in kinship care will attract the pupil premium.
What is more, the pupil premium is not a personal budget for individual pupils who meet the funding criteria. This means that schools can direct spending where the need is greatest, including to pupils with other identified needs. The pupil premium is a discretionary grant, and while there are no plans to place it on a statutory footing, I would like to reassure the noble Lord that we are reviewing how we allocate the pupil premium over the longer term to ensure that it is targeted to those who need it most.
On Amendments 45 and 48, relating to the introduction of financial support for kinship carers and kinship leave, this Government recognise the need to support kinship carers with the financial challenges they experience as well as the difficulties they encounter when trying to work alongside raising a child. In Committee, we said that the department would soon launch a new kinship allowance pilot. I am pleased to share that this will support approximately 4,500 children in kinship care in selected local authorities. The pilot will evaluate the impact of paying a weekly allowance to kinship carers and support them with the additional costs incurred when taking on parental responsibility for a child.
We understand the concerns of noble Lords, and there is a desire to roll out an allowance nationally. However, as we mentioned in Committee, it is important that we first build the evidence base to find out how best to deliver the support for kinship families and to ensure that any decisions about future rollout are informed by the findings of the evaluation.
The issue of leave for kinship carers was rightly discussed and debated by your Lordships’ House last year during the passage of the Employment Rights Bill. I acknowledge the strong case put forward by Members for better support for kinship carers. The Government agree that the issue of kinship care leave is important and requires further consideration. As a result, the Government have committed to include kinship carers in the announced review of the parental leave and pay system. I am pleased to confirm that, following this commitment, kinship leave is now included in the published terms of reference for the review.
Additionally, I am delighted that, from April, those kinship carers who are already entitled to unpaid parental leave, if they have, or expect to have, been granted parental responsibility, will be eligible for this from day one of employment. From their first day in a new job, kinship carers with a special guardianship or child arrangement order will now be able to give notice of their intention to take up to four weeks of parental leave each year for each child they care for, up to a maximum of 18 weeks, until the child is 18. I hope noble Lords will agree that these are meaningful steps towards ensuring that more kinship carers are supported to care for the children they look after.