Baroness Barran (Con)

I open by thanking the Minister for those final remarks, particularly in relation to kinship leave and the school census. The Government have acknowledged that the kinship rules need reviewing and updating. The amendments in my name and the name of the noble Lord, Lord Hampton, who brings real experience as a now ex-kinship carer to this debate, seek to do the following things. First, they aim to recognise the advantages, from the perspective of a child, of being cared for by a member of one’s extended family by easing the regulatory framework. In a world where a kinship carer could be approved by a family group decision-making meeting or the family group decision-making process ultimately leads to the appointment of kinship carers if the original plan with birth parents breaks down, we believe it is not reasonable to then go through the whole mainstream foster carer approval process. That underpins my Amendment 31. I made that point in Committee and the Minister in her response said that “we recognise that there is room for improvement in how these assessments are carried out”. She went on to say that in such cases “the local authority has an obligation to complete a robust safeguarding assessment”.—[Official Report, 9/6/26; col. 1165.] I would have thought that would have already happened when the family group decision-making meeting had been held. We are talking about cases that are about to go into care proceedings, so the risks would be well understood. The Minister rightly pointed out that the guidance gives some small flexibility, but ultimately the kinship carer has to meet the minimum standards and, unless she can tell me otherwise, my understanding is that it is rare that this flexibility is used. Maybe that was acceptable in the past, but we are moving to a time where the use of kinship carers is rightly being actively encouraged by the Government, so numbers should increase and the Bill is an opportunity to streamline the process. Alongside this, as we debated earlier, our Amendment 5, had it been accepted, would have provided a wider package of support, but I accept that the Government aim to achieve that in a different way. The aim of Amendment 32 is to expedite the review currently being undertaken by the Law Commission. We all know that it could take many years to complete and for its recommendations to appear on the statute book. Amendment 32 would put pace on this and permit the introduction of regulations that would address the issues that have been identified as barriers to increasing the number of kinship foster carers. Following the changes made to the kinship care statutory guidance around the application of the national minimum standards to kinship foster carers in October 2024, surely it would make sense to review their impact, take further steps to ensure that fostering approval and assessment processes work well for this group, and consider their specific needs, strengths and circumstances. Fourteen months on from the change, we argue that it would be sensible for the Government to review the impact to understand whether it has been effective in improving practice within local authority fostering and kinship teams. A review would also be able to identify whether greater numbers of family and friends have since been approved as kinship foster carers against expected benchmarks. The number and proportion of children who start to be looked after in kinship care each year—around 5,500—have remained stable in recent years. We would expect to see this increase following the change in guidance and an increasing policy and practice focus on prioritising kinship care options for children. Last year, the Welsh Government proposed to amend their fostering regulations to create a separate kinship foster carer category, separate from mainstream foster carers. This intends to allow more discretion in the assessment and approval process for kinship foster carers, supporting panels and decision-makers to take a more flexible approach to suitability and to consider areas that are relevant only to a kinship care arrangement. In England, although Standard 30 of the fostering national minimum standards describes expectations around family and friends as kinship foster carers, it is clear that, “where family and friends are approved as foster carers the other standards apply as they do for other foster carers”. A review, as proposed by the amendment, would offer an opportunity to consider whether a different approach might be needed, including one that mirrors the Welsh Government’s proposal of a distinct kinship foster carer category, with a separate accompanying schedule of requirements. It is genuinely disappointing that there has not been more movement from the Government in this area. It would involve no cost and would address many of the issues that the Government have identified and that are certainly of concern to children’s services leads around the country. If the Government really want to see the number of successful kinship placements increase, they should expedite this review as quickly as possible. I beg to move.