Kinship carers struggling to cope despite 拢4.3 billion value they add to society
Dr , Lecturer in Sociology, is one of the authors of '', a new report on the huge and often under-recognised contribution made to society by kinship carers, who look after children who would often otherwise be in the care system.
The team estimate that over 132,000 children live in kinship care in England. Kinship carers contribute an estimated 拢4.3 billion a year to society. But unlike foster carers and adoptive parents, most have few rights to financial, practical and emotional support, and taking on the care of a child they love often pushes them into poverty, unemployment and ill health.
The report is produced by at University of Sheffield in partnership with Kinship. It is written by Maria Petrillo, Jingwen Zhang, Becky Driscoll, and Nathan Hughes.