Paid employment leave for kinship carers
Kinship carers are a vital part of our society and the children’s social care sector. In 2021, more than 141,000 children in England and Wales were living in households without a parent but with other adult relatives (Office for National Statistics, 2023). The UK government published the Νational Κinship Care Strategy in response to Family Rights Group’s (FRG) Time to Define Campaign (Family Rights Group, 2023; Department for Education, 2023). The strategy defines kinship care as “any situation in which a child is being raised in the care of a friend or family member who is not their parent. The arrangement may be temporary or longer term”.
There is an extensive body of literature suggesting that kinship care often leads to better outcomes for children compared to other care arrangements. For instance, Selwyn and Nandy (2012) found that 11% of the children and young people in kinship care had a possible depressive disorder, compared to 28% in unrelated foster care. However, kinship carers do not receive support on par with other carers and parents. Kinship carers are entitled to up to 18 weeks off work if they have (or expect to have) parental responsibility for a child and have been working for their employer for at least a year. However, this time off work is not paid and only applies to kinship carers (with or who expect to have) parental responsibility, namely kinship carers with Special Guardianship Orders (SGOs) and Child Arrangement Orders (CAOs) . The lack of paid parental leave may force kinship carers to stop working to take care of their child. An unpublished 2024 survey carried out by FRG found that almost 41% of kinship carers had to give up work, and a further 23% reduced working hours when starting their caring responsibilities.
To address these issues, the Family Rights Group commissioned Alma Economics to explore the costs and benefits of introducing changes to employment rights for kinship carers, particularly employment leave. To that end, we first carried out a thorough desk-based review to explore paid employment leave policies in the UK and abroad that could be applied to kinship carers. We then created a shortlist of viable policy options that were refined in collaboration with FRG.
Our team created bespoke Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) models to explore the costs and benefits of each policy option, across different funding levels and eligibility criteria. Our models included both impacts on the Exchequer and wider benefits and costs to society. In particular, we considered (i) the cost of paying leave while carers are not working, (ii) foregone tax revenue due to carers not working for the duration of the leave, (iii) savings from reduced benefit claims as carers remain in employment, (iv) additional tax revenue due to carers returning immediately to their previous work instead of having to find a new one, (v) improved children’s health due to carers taking time off work and spending time with them in their formative years, and (vi) gains in Gross Domestic Product due to carers remaining in work after their leave.
In summary, extending adoption leave to kinship carers would yield significantly greater benefits than costs for all examined target groups and durations. The Benefit-Cost Ratios (BCRs) we have estimated range from £2.0 to £2.4. At the end of the project and in addition to a detailed report, we created an Excel model that functions as a lasting tool, allowing users to input different durations, eligibility criteria, and employment pay to explore alternative policy scenarios. Our report and model will be crucial in FRG’s efforts to secure paid employment leave for kinship carers in line with birth and adoptive parents.
Read the full report here.