Kinship Local Offer: Your Council's Family and Friends Policy and What It Must Include

What the Kinship Local Offer Is

Every top-tier local authority in England now has a statutory duty to publish a kinship care "Local Offer." This is a public document that sets out the support services and financial assistance available to kinship carers in that council area — everything from allowances and assessment procedures to peer support groups and advice services.

The local offer requirement grew out of the government's recognition that kinship carers were being told different things by different departments within the same council. One social worker might say an allowance is available; another might not know it exists. The local offer is meant to eliminate that inconsistency by putting everything in one published place.

What the Local Offer Should Include

A comprehensive kinship local offer covers:

• Financial support: which allowances the council pays (SGO allowance, CAO allowance, Section 17 discretionary payments), how to apply, and the means-testing criteria
• Assessment procedures: how the council assesses a kinship carer's financial needs, including timescales and the right to a written breakdown of the calculation
• Advice and advocacy: signposting to local and national organisations (Kinship charity, Family Rights Group, Citizens Advice, Child Law Advice)
• Peer support: local kinship carer support groups, coffee mornings, online communities
• Practical help: school uniform grants, free school meals eligibility, housing advice, equipment for children arriving in an emergency
• Training and development: any courses or workshops the council offers to kinship carers (parenting support, therapeutic care, managing trauma)
• The role of the Virtual School Head: how the VSH supports the education of children in kinship care

In practice, local offers vary enormously in quality. Some councils publish detailed, well-structured documents with clear financial information and application routes. Others publish a single web page with vague signposting and no mention of allowance rates.

The Family and Friends Care Policy

Separate from (but related to) the local offer, many councils maintain an internal "Family and Friends Care Policy" or "Kinship Care Policy." This is the operational document that social workers and panel members use when deciding whether to pay an allowance and how much.

The Family and Friends Care Policy typically includes:

• The council's definition of which arrangements qualify for financial support
• The means-testing formula for SGO and CAO allowances (including what income and expenses are counted)
• Payment rates by age band
• Review and appeal procedures
• Rules on lump-sum payments for legal costs, housing adaptations, or essential equipment

You have the right to request a copy of this policy. If the council won't provide it voluntarily, make a formal request. The policy governs the decisions being made about your allowance — you need to understand its rules before you can challenge a decision that seems wrong.

How to Find Your Council's Local Offer

Start with the Kinship charity's Kinship Compass tool at kinship.org.uk. Enter your postcode, and it pulls up your local authority's kinship support information, including links to their published local offer.

If the Kinship Compass entry is sparse or out of date (some councils update their pages infrequently), search your council's website directly for "kinship care" or "family and friends care." The document is sometimes buried under children's services or fostering rather than being given its own section.

If you can't find a published local offer, that's a problem — the council has a duty to publish one. Contact children's services by phone or email, ask for the kinship local offer document, and note who you spoke to and when. If you get nowhere, the Kinship charity's advice line (0300 123 7015) can help you escalate.

Using the Local Offer to Get Support

The local offer isn't just informational — it's a tool for holding your council to its stated commitments. If the local offer says the council provides an SGO allowance based on the fostering rate minus Child Benefit and the UC child element, and your allowance calculation doesn't match, you have a published document to point to.

Practical steps:

1. Download or print your council's kinship local offer
2. Compare the financial support described in the local offer against what you're actually receiving
3. If there's a gap, write to children's services referencing the specific section of the local offer and ask for a reassessment or explanation
4. If the council's response is unsatisfactory, use the complaints procedure — the local offer should include details of how to complain

The Money for Kinship Carers in England guide includes template letters for requesting your council's Family and Friends Care Policy and challenging allowance decisions based on published local offer commitments.

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