## Charity registration number: 1163906 ## Kinship Carers UK ## Trustee Report For the year ended 31st March 2023 Kinship Carers UK Legal and Administration Information ## **Charity Number:** 1163906 **Directors:** Don Beckett, Chair (appointed 2017) Victoria Smith (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 **Annual Report 2023** Page 1 ## **Kinship Carers UK** ## **Directors’ Report** ## **Year Ended 31[ST] March 2023** The directors present their report and account for the year ended 31 March 2023. 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: - 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; - 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. - 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. **Annual Report 2023** Page 2 ## **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 around 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. - All kinship care families receive the support, encouragement and opportunities they need to enjoy their lives - 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 - 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:** - **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. - **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. - **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. - **Continuing to be a well-managed charity** and, in the near future, operating from a fixed location and achieving long-term financial stability **Annual Report 2023** Page 3 - **Setting up more support groups in the UK** and offering support and training to other support group leaders. Providing 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 617 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. **Annual Report 2023** Page 4 ## • **Face to Face Support Groups** - 5 support groups in Worcestershire covering Malvern, Redditch, Kidderminster and 2 support groups in Worcester, both day-time and evening. - Support groups that are regularly attended in 3 other areas of the country, in Taunton, Cheltenham, and Dudley. During support groups, we offer adults advice, emotional support and encouragement. Some sessions offered are bespoke training to carers on the following subjects: - Adoption and special guardian support fund - Compassion fatigue and self care - Kinship Legal Law Q & A - Therapeutic Parenting for Kinship Carers - Positive mental health - Protective Behaviours - Understanding Attachment - Understanding Kinship - Understanding FASD ## • ## **Kinship Community cafe** Kinship Carers UK has proven a great success, we have 12 monthly cafés, with guest speakers. The guest speakers have come from a variety of professional backgrounds and have given the carers access to people they often would not meet. The popular Kinship Community Café have also given carers a virtual place to meet other kinship carers. Uptake for this group has been notable 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. ## • ## **Kinship Carers UK Friends** Kinship Carers UK Friends is made up of 9 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. - ## **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. **Annual Report 2023** Page 5 ## • **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. ## • ## **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 three regular weekly support groups and have carers from across the UK. ## • **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 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 also encourage families to meet in safe, open-air environments and encourage using a variety of media to communicate as well as pen pal activities such as sharing letters, and 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 of ‘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, we offer virtual social evenings for kinship carers to befriend other carers in a safe environment, which has also proved very successful. **Annual Report 2023** Page 6 ## • **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. ## • **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: - Continue supporting kinship families with bespoke training by understanding their needs and finding solutions. - Further develop high-quality support materials online, continuing to offer phone and online support. - Further develop support groups nationwide, building support groups where needed. - Further develop the youth activities and working with kinship children - Continue working with other agencies, universities and businesses to influence policies for the next generation of kinship carers. - 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. **Annual Report 2023** Page 7 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: `o` rooms with ICT facilities - parent/carer support counselling room - sensory therapy room - soft play area - large function room with a kitchen attached - a secure office environment - a garden area with facilities to include a play area and a sensory garden. - Working from this location, we will continue supporting Kinship carers with education support, counselling, and training to provide a supportive and nurturing environment for families that encourages and promotes communication, positive behaviour patterns, cooperation and mutual respect. - 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: - The Eveson Charitable Trust - Beacon lodge - The National Lottery Awards for All - Sir John Middlemore Charitable Trust - Garfield Weston - Haines Watts - Xander Talent ## **10. Governance and Management** **Annual Report 2023** Page 8 The Board of Directors held 4 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 policies 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. ## **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, fundraisers 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:** Ellie Turner-Lee Lisa Browne Jane Hinton Debbie Elwood Mike & Brigitte Robertson ## **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, **Annual Report 2023** Page 9 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. ## **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|12thOctober 2023|12thOctober 2023| Charity registration number: 1163906 ## Kinship Carers UK ## Receipts and Payments Accounts ## For the period from 1[st] April 2021 to 31[st] March 2023 **Annual Report 2023** Page 10 ## **Section A Receipts and Payments** |**Receipts**|**22/23**|**21/22**| |---|---|---| |Awards|£34,400|£16,500| |Donations|£2,636|£3,287| |Events|£0|£0| |Collections / Raffles|£0|£0| |**Gross Income**|**£37,036**|**£19,787**| |**Payments**||| |Home Working & Wages|£0|£621| |Salaries|£20,889|£18,713| |Travel|£871|£763| |Bank Charges|£80|£21| |Office & Equipment|£457|£189| |Communications|£1,966|£1,063| |Family Activities|£614|£150| |Youth Club|£0|£135| |Insurance|£419|£410| |Website|£198|£3,297| |Promotions|£45|£224| |Training|£0|£0| |PPE|£0|£0| |**Total Payments**|**£25,539**|**£25,586**| |**Net of Receipts (Payments)**|**£11,497**|**£5,799**| |Transfers between Funds|£0|£0| |Cash Funds from at start of period|£28,093|£33,892| |**Cash Funds this year end**|**£39,590**|**£28,093**| **Annual Report 2023** Page 11 ## **Notes** 1. The accounts were prepared on a receipts and payments basis. 2. 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|12thOctober 2023|12thOctober 2023| **Annual Report 2023** Page 12