Law Commission consultation

Kinship care:
have your say

The Law Commission wants to hear from people with experience of kinship care. Your views can help shape its recommendations for England and Wales. Young people who have grown up in kinship care, carers, families and anyone with an interest can respond.

Go to the response form

This opens the Law Commission's form. VFCC does not collect your response.

What is kinship care?

Family or friends stepping in

Kinship care is when a child is cared for most or all of the time by relatives or close family friends instead of their parents. That could be a grandparent, auntie, uncle, sibling, other relative or a family friend.

It includes informal arrangements. You may have experienced kinship care without ever using that name.

This page is in English. The Law Commission's project page includes its official consultation resources, including Welsh Easy Read material.

What is kinship care? The video explains that a nan, auntie, big brother or family friend can step in when parents cannot care, and that people may have had this experience without knowing the name for it.

Open the Law Commission form. It is an external form, not a VFCC form.

Complete the “About you” section. The form asks for your name, email address and privacy preference.

Share what you want to. The 11 questions are optional: answer the ones that matter to you.

Taking part

You choose what to share

You do not need to answer every question or tell your whole story. You can share a few thoughts, answer one question, or respond to the parts that feel most important to you.

The response is sent directly to the Law Commission. VFCC will not receive, store or submit it.

Open the response form

A guide to the form

What the questions are asking

This is a plain-language guide. The Law Commission form has the full wording.

Your experience of kinship care.
What could have made your experience of kinship care better.
Your views on the proposed Kinship Care Order.
What an assessment or report for that order should consider.
Your views on the proposed Kinship Parental Responsibility Agreement.
Possible changes to Special Guardianship Orders.
Possible changes to Child Arrangements Orders.
Assessment for people becoming kinship foster carers.
How the law should deal with a child’s relationship with their parents.
How to make sure a child’s views are heard.
Whether current kinship care law is fair, why it may be unfair, and how to improve it.

Helpful words

A few terms you may see

The Law Commission is asking about proposed changes. These are not the law now.

Kinship Care Order: A proposed flexible legal order for kinship carers.
Kinship Parental Responsibility Agreement: A proposed way for parents to give a close relative caring for their child the legal authority to make decisions.
Parental responsibility: The legal authority to make important decisions about a child’s life.
Special Guardianship Order: An existing order that gives a special guardian responsibility for important decisions.
Child Arrangements Order: An existing order about who a child lives with or spends time with.

More information