Charity registration number: 1163906
Kinship Carers UK
Trustee Report
For the year ended 31st March 2021
Kinship Carers UK Legal and Administration Information
Charity Number: 1163906
Directors: Don Beckett, Chair (appointed 2017) Karin Little (appointed 2019) Victoria Smith (appointed 2015) Joy Squires (appointed 2015) Susan Sztybel (appointed 2015) Donna Weaver (Appointed 2020) Clare Whittaker (appointed 2019)
Chief Executive
Enza Smith MBE (appointed 2015)
Treasurer
Jane Hinton (appointed 2016)
Principal Registered Address:
43 Somers Road Barbourne Worcester WR1 3JJ
Bank: NatWest Bank 1 The Cross Worcester WR1 3PR
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Kinship Carers UK
Directors’ Report
Year Ended 31[ST] March 2021
The directors present their report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2021.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in notes to the accounts and comply with the charity’s governing document.
1. Structure
Kinship Carers UK was established on 5[th] September 2011. Kinship Carers UK became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) on the 8[th] October 2015.
2. Charitable Objectives
Kinship Carers UK objectives are to promote the better care, upbringing and establishment in life of children, in particular by:
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Promoting the role of kinship carers and, in particular, the care by grandparents at all levels, particularly in circumstances of family breakdown, single parenthood or other difficult conditions;
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Supporting and advising kinship carers, grandparents and friend and family carers who are acting as, or intend to act as, carers, particularly in the circumstances outlined above.
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The relief of children, their carers and carers’ families in the area of benefit by providing facilities in the interests of social welfare for recreation and their leisure time occupation, with a view to improving their condition of life.
Kinship Carers UK champions the vital role of friend and family carers, otherwise known as kinship carers or connected families, when they take on the challenging role of
permanently parenting someone else’s child. Everything we do is designed to improve the day to day experiences of kinship families by empowering them and supporting them. We listen to what they say about their situation and identify with them positives changes that can be made.
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3. Mission Statement
Kinship Carers UK helps kinship families to succeed by promoting loving and supportive relationships between children, young people and their kinship families. We provide independent support, information and advice. In particular, current kinship families offer a wealth of relevant experience to prospective kinship carers and to all those who work with them.
4. Our Vision
There are 300,000 children in the UK raised by family and friend carers. These children have suffered similar adversities to those in the care system yet the support they receive bears little, if any, relationship to their needs. There will always be a need for some children to be cared for away from their natural parents, so we are helping to create a world where every unique kinship family we meet is recognised and supported.
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All kinship care families receive the support, encouragement and opportunities they need to enjoy their lives
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There is recognition of the support that children coming into kinship care are likely to need in order to address traumatic experiences of abuse, neglect and serious family dysfunction
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Provision for kinship children of the right help and people in their lives who believe that every kinship family can thrive.
We do this by:
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Combatting the isolation and stress that kinship families encounter in their day to day lives and helping children to stay connected to their families and communities. Giving kinship families free and confidential support, including being an advocate for the kinship families.
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Giving kinship families a stronger voice Informing, empowering and supporting kinship families, children and young people in their care, through projects and campaigns which directly benefit them Ensuring that children who have experienced the loss or removal of their parents get the help and support they need to move forward with their lives.
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Generating information such as support materials and educational literature for kinship carers and professionals, including social workers, teachers and health care professionals, as a means of improving the lives of kinship families.
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Continuing to be a well-managed charity and, in the near future, operating from a fixed location and achieving long-term financial stability
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- Setting up more support groups in the UK and offering support and training to other support group leaders. Providing links and support for families and their children’s current schools, helping to support positive relationships between them, supporting the parents in meetings with the special education needs department and teaching assistants to help give the school an insight into what issues the children may have and working out the best strategies for the child involved. Continuing to facilitate the Kinship carers support groups both face to face and virtually, always striving to finding new ways in which we can support them. Likewise, continuing to work alongside other relevant organisations in conveying upto-date information.
5. Our Values
We are independent: We always act and speak in the best interests of kinship carers and the children in their care and we are not compromised by any political or commercial interests.
We are engaged: We actively listen to and talk with kinship carers, their children and young people in their care and other people and organisations with expertise and insights that can help.
We are transparent and accessible: We communicate clearly what we do, why we do it and how we spend the donations we receive. This is achieved by the Kinship Care.Org website and our publications.
Kinship Carers UK’s long-term aspiration is to develop and refine the service and to provide a blueprint that can be duplicated in other areas of the country where there is a growing need.
6. What We Have Achieved
Kinship Carers UK champions the vital role of kinship carers ‘friend and family carers’ when they take on the challenging role of permanently parenting someone else’s child.
We have offered the following:
- Supported Families
We have supported over 380 families to date throughout England. These are families that we meet either on a regular basis or in times of crisis within their lives. The majority of families have orders such as Special Guardianship Orders, Child Arrangement Orders, Kinship Fostering, Carers with private arrangements, also grandparents sharing the responsibility of caring for their grandchildren.
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• Face to Face Support Groups
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5 support groups in Worcestershire covering Malvern, Redditch, Kidderminster and 2 support groups in Worcester, both day-time and evening.
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Support groups that are regularly attended in 5 other areas of the country, in Taunton, Cheltenham, Dudley, Uttoxeter and Cornwall.
During support groups, we offer adults advice, emotional support and encouragement. Some sessions offered are bespoke training to carers on the following subjects:
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Adoption support fund for carers with SGO orders
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Compassion fatigue and selfcare
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Kinship Legal Law Q & A
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Therapeutic Parenting for Kinship Carers
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Positive mental health
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Protective Behaviours
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Understanding Attachment
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Understanding Kinship
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Understanding FASD
Kinship Carers UK Carers Panel
Kinship Carers UK Carers Panel is made up of 29 volunteers, comprising directors, adults we have previously supported and family and friend carers with various parental responsibilities and orders. The panel has a number of roles, including working alongside the aims and objectives of our charity, raising awareness and giving group kinship presentations.
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Kinship Carers UK Friends
Kinship Carers UK Friends is made up of 11 volunteers, comprising adults we have previously supported and their friends. The friends group role is to raise funds and provide support for activities that work alongside the aims and objectives of our charity.
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Advocacy Service
Our advocacy service has been a life-saving link for a number of kinship carers. We have supported carers in meetings with professionals such as Child in Need meetings, Child Protection meetings, Family Conferences and meetings with schools that help teachers to understand the issues that the children face. With the increase of virtual meetings it has enabled us to widen our support to places across the country.
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• Peer Support Programme
The peer support programme has been very successful. Our experience has shown us that each carer has their own identity, their own story and, likewise, so have the children. We carefully identify carers who have a wealth of experience from their circumstances of life and encourage them to share, identify with and support others.
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Virtual Support Group
We understand that, for many reasons, it is very difficult for carers to attend support groups. Our demand for virtual support groups has increased dramatically since the start of the Covid-19 Pandemic. We host regular weekly support groups and have carers from across the UK. From the demand of support, we have also created, a virtual Kinship Community Café which has proven to be very successful. Uptake for this group has been impressive and the variety of the speciality of guest speakers has provided a great resource for carers that do not have the opportunity to attend specialist kinship training.
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Youth Group
Unfortunately, due to Covid-19 restrictions and local lock down we have been unable to offer a full range of youth activities this year. Kinship Carers UK youth group is for children and young people from the age of 6 to 16. We are now in the fifth academic year of running the group and have an experienced youth lead and a number of dedicated voluntary youth workers. Our aim is for our youth group to provide a therapeutic environment and we feel that we are achieving this as it has been successful in encouraging the children and young people to be comfortable with who they are and how they feel emotionally, enabling them to be with other children who are being raised with kinship carers and to identify with them.
At each session we provide a variety of activities, such as:
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Cooking: healthy eating, cooking for fun, health and safety in the kitchen.
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Arts and crafts: therapeutic art and creating crafts
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Imaginary play: children feel that they are free to play at their current milestone without feeling judged.
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Sports: sports are fun and we encourage team games such football, volley ball and dodge ball as well as less energetic games like table tennis and table football.
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Advocacy Support
We have offered advocacy support virtually during lock down, Kinship Carers have found this support very helpful and it has helped carers to use the support we have given them to act independently with confidence. Advocacy is a major part of our
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activity after the support group activities. We have supported potential friend and family carers through the court process, gaining valuable experience of legal processes.
We have successfully supported carers, leading to successful results for everyone concerned in working collaboratively with the carers and professionals in seeking the best outcome.
We have supported carers and their children and young people in schools by helping teachers to understand how the trauma that the children have faced in the past has an impact on their lives in school and that they are not ‘naughty children’ but children that need therapeutic support, as with any other looked after child.
• Activities
We understand that being a kinship family can feel very isolating for both the carer and child. We encourage families to meet in Covid safe open-air environments whilst social distancing and encourage using a variety of media to communicate as well as pen pal activities such as sharing letters, photos and communicating with each other using safe media.
While it is important to have family time, it is also important for carers to step out of the role of carer for an evening and have some ‘me time’. This year we have only had a couple ‘adult only’ evenings but they proved to be very successful and this is something that we will build on in the future when it is safe to do so. As an alternative during lock down, we are offering virtual social evenings for kinship carers to befriend other carers in a safe environment, which has also proved to be very successful.
• Collaboration with Other Organisations and Raising Awareness
o Kinship Care Alliance
Kinship Carers UK has worked successfully with the Kinship Care Alliance. The Alliance is made up of a group of organisations that subscribe to a set of shared aims and beliefs on the issue of family and friends care. The aim of the Kinship Care Alliance is to prevent children from unnecessarily being raised outside the family, to enhance outcomes for children who cannot live with their parents and who are living with relatives and to secure improved recognition and support for family and friend carers. Enza Smith MBE our CEO, has been actively involved with the Executive Committee for the Kinship Care Alliance.
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Raising awareness
This year Kinship Carers UK has focused on raising media awareness by encouraging carers to anonymously share their kinship experiences. We have had great success with our social media sites and are very proud of the positive response.
7. Future Plans
Our key objectives for this coming year are to:
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Continue to support kinship families with bespoke training by understanding their needs and finding solutions together.
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Further develop high quality support materials on-line, continuing to offer phone and online support.
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Further develop support groups across the country, building support groups where they are needed.
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Further develop the youth activities and working with kinship children
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Continue to work with other agencies, universities and businesses in influencing policies for the next generation of kinship carers.
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Continue to develop our infrastructure and our work with volunteers from all walks of life.
8. Our Future Aims
Our aims for the next 3 years explain what we believe, what our main priorities are and how we will make a difference to kinship families.
Everything we do is designed to improve the day to day experience of kinship families, the children in their care and their future lives. Kinship Carers UK is a voice for all Kinship families; we listen to what they say about their experiences, identify with them what improvements can be made and we work in partnership with those able to help us to bring about positive change.
Long Term Aspirations
The long-term aspirations for Kinship Carers UK are as follows:
- To establish a permanent base from which to work, with a facility that provides:
oteaching rooms with ICT facilities
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parent/carer support counselling room
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sensory therapy room
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soft play area
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large function room with a kitchen attached
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a secure office environment
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a garden area with facilities to include play area, sensory garden.
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Working from this location, we will continue supporting Kinship carers with education support, counselling, training so that we can provide a supportive and nurturing environment for families that encourages and promotes communication, positive behaviour pattern, cooperation and mutual respect.
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We will also offer support for the families and rest to the carers by providing opportunities to participate in enjoyable and motivating activities and experiences with the children in their care.
9. Funding and Support
We are immensely grateful to everyone who has supported Kinship Carers UK for their kind generosity and belief in the work we do.
Individuals who have directly supported us through activities include:
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The Eveson Charitable Trust
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Worcester County Council Community funding
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The National Lottery Awards for All
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Ground works
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Sir John Middlemore Charitable Trust
10. Governance and Management
The Board of Directors held 3 meetings during the year. The directors serve for three years, after which they put themselves forward for re-appointment. The Board of Directors keeps the skill requirements under review and may appoint a person as a trustee in areas that are beneficial to the running of the charity. New Directors are sought by dialogue with directors and advertising. Newly appointed directors serve for a maximum of 3 years and the Board will not run with less than 3 directors, as written in the charity’s governing document. Each new director receives a copy of the CIO documentation and documentation that outlines their role and responsibilities. The Chief Executive Officer also has meetings with new directors to ensure that each person clearly understands their role.
The Board of Directors is responsible for setting out the polices of Kinship Carers UK. The directors elect a chairperson and the chief executive offer is responsible to the Board of Directors for the execution of these policies.
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11. Volunteers
All of our work would not be possible without the hard work of our volunteers, including our directors, support group leaders, youth group workers, administration, fund raisers and our casual volunteering staff. We are very grateful to all our skilled and dedicated volunteers who continue to play a vital role in supporting Kinship Carers UK and kinship families.
With special thanks to the following:
Lisa Browne Gemma & Graham Butterworth Jane Hinton Tina Mueller Griffiths Donna Weaver Susan Sztybel Rachel O’Malley Kasia Bialas
12. Risk Management and Internal Controls
The Board of Directors has overall responsibility for ensuring that Kinship Carers UK has appropriate systems of control, both financial and operational. The Chief Executive Officer identifies major risks to which the charity may be exposed; all risks are reviewed and dealt with by the Board of Directors.
The directors are responsible for preparing the Directors’ Report and Financial Statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards. Directors must ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Commission standards.
CIO requires the directors to prepare financial statements for each financial year, which give a true and fair view of the movement of funds, including income, expenditure, governance and taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities. The directors are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the financial information included on the Charity Commission’s website.
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13. Declaration
The directors declare that they have approved the directors’ report above.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s directors
| Signatures | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full Names | Enza Smith MBE | Donald Beckett |
| Position | Chief Executive | Chair |
| Date | 15thDecember 2021 | 15thDecember 2021 |
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Charity registration number: 1163906
Kinship Carers UK
Receipts and Payments Accounts
For the period from 1[st] April 2020 to 31[st] March 2021
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| Section A Receipts and Payments | Section A Receipts and Payments | |
|---|---|---|
| Receipts | 20/21 | 19/20 |
| Awards | £26,800 | £200 |
| Donations | £2,045 | £3,776 |
| Events | £0 | £910 |
| Collections / Raffles | £0 | £242 |
| Gross Income | £28,845 | £5,128 |
| Payments | ||
| Home Working | £2,009 | £800 |
| Salaries | £2,092 | £0 |
| Travel | £544 | £1,725 |
| Office & Equipment | £1,074 | £274 |
| Communications | £1,717 | £1,187 |
| Uniform | £0 | £0 |
| Family Activities | £0 | £807 |
| Youth Club | £0 | £247 |
| Insurance | £399 | £361 |
| Room Hire | £0 | £1000 |
| Website | £205 | £244 |
| Promotions | £0 | £14 |
| Training | £550 | £173 |
| PPE | £212 | £0 |
| Total Payments | £8,802 | £6,832 |
| Net of Receipts (Payments) | £20,043 | (£1,704) |
| Transfers between Funds | £0 | £0 |
| Cash Funds from at start of period | £13,849 | £15,553 |
| Cash Funds this year end | £33,892 | £13,849 |
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| Section B Statement of assets and | liabilities at the end of the period | liabilities at the end of the period |
|---|---|---|
| 20/21 | 19/20 | |
| Cash Funds [Unrestricted] | £33,892 | £13,849 |
| Other Monetary Assets | £0 | £0 |
| Investment Assets | £0 | £0 |
| Assets retained for the charity’s own use | £0 | £0 |
| Liabilities | £0 | £0 |
Notes
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The accounts were prepared on a receipts and payments basis.
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All receipts and payments for the period were treated as unrestricted.
Declaration
The trustees declare that they have approved the charity accounts above.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees
| Signatures | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full Names | Enza Smith MBE | Jane Hinton |
| Position | Chief Executive | Treasurer |
| Date | 6thDecember 2021 | 6thDecember 2021 |
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