Mayor Bradburn visits MK Kinship Carers Support Group

Milton Keynes Mayor Marie Bradburn pledged her ongoing support for local kinship carers on a visit to the Family and Friends Carers support group at Westcroft on Thursday 13 June.

Kinship care is when relatives or family friends step in to raise children who can no longer live at home. An estimated 1000 children are in some form of kinship care in Milton Keynes, but their carers are not legally entitled to the same levels of support as other foster carers, even though many have had to reduce or give up their paid work when a child comes into their care. Some receive no support at all.

Family and Friends Carers (Kinship) is a voluntary group based in Milton Keynes, providing friendship and support to kinship carers in the city and a wide area around.

The group, which meets every Thursday morning during term time in Morrison’s Community Room in the Westcroft Centre, welcomes all kinship carers, whatever their relationship to the child or children. It welcomes carers regardless of what legal arrangement they have (or none!), they can come to us and discuss their issues in a confidential setting (all personal discussion remains within the group). Prospective carers are also welcome.

Mayor Marie Bradburn has been a longstanding supporter, helping to raise awareness or the existence of the support group and has facilitated dialogue with MK Children’s Social Services in her previous role as Chair of the council’s Corporate Parenting Committee.

Family and Friends Carers spokesperson, Karen Trett, said kinship carers are undervalued and often struggle to access the practical, emotional and financial support their families need.

“The preferred option of Milton Keynes Children’s Social Services is for carer relatives to take out a Special Guardianship Order, which gives the carers parental responsibility and opens the door to support. Milton Keynes Children’s Services currently has around 300 children on its books under Special Guardianship, most of whom are eligible for financial support.

“However Special Guardians receive a much lower package of support than that available to foster carers. In particular, financial support is means tested and discretionary, something which our group want to see changed.”

“ As a result of our dialogue with them, the Council has allocated some dedicated social services support and a support help line, but these struggle to cope with demand,” she said.

“Our love and commitment ensures children can remain safely in their family and community instead of becoming separated in foster care, possibly outside our area, or, in the case of very young children, being adopted.

“All kinship carers are voluntary; they could all have said ‘no’. Had they done so, all these children would now be in the care system, with all the burden of the costs that would entail.

“Kinship care is a solution that works for children, families and the state, yet too often it is undervalued and under supported. So we particularly value the ongoing support shown to us by Mayor Bradburn.”