Kinship Allowance Pilot
The Kinship Allowance Pilot will fund selected local authorities to provide a weekly financial allowance to eligible kinship carers. The allowance is to support them with the additional costs incurred when taking the parental responsibility of a kinship child. This funding is for local authorities.
- Opening date: (Midday)
- Closing date: (Midnight)
Contents
Summary
The Department for Education (DfE) will provide funding for up to 10 local authorities in England to deliver an allowance for kinship carers with a Special Guardianship Order (SGO) or a ‘lives with’ Child Arrangement Order (CAO) looking after children who would be ‘otherwise in care’. This will include all children subject to a kinship SGO application and children subject to a CAO application by the family court who would ‘otherwise be in care’. The allowance will match the National Minimum Allowance (NMA) delivered to kinship foster carers (or ‘Friends and Family Foster Carers’) by selected local authorities. The pilot will run between November 2025 and March 2029. The pilot will be independently evaluated, and decisions about future rollout will be informed by the findings of the evaluation. Further information is available in the linked documents.
Eligibility
Local authorities who fulfil the following criteria are not eligible to apply:
You already offer a regular financial allowance that matches the foster care National Minimum Allowance (NMA) to the majority of kinship carers in your area with SGO/ ‘lives with’ CAO legal orders, who care for children who do not classify as ‘previously looked after’ children.
You have been issued a section 114 notice that is still in effect at the time of the publication of this Expression of Interest process.
Any other local authorities are eligible to apply. This includes local authorities with the following circumstances:
You received a ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’ rating during your last Ofsted inspection.
You are part of another programme or pilot funded by the Department for Education, or other government departments.
Objectives
The Kinship Allowance Pilot aims to support certain formal kinship carers through the following means: Improving the financial support available for kinship carers with an SGO in relation to the child they are looking after or a “lives with CAO” for children who would otherwise be in local authority care.Improving the financial support available to kinship carers in the process of obtaining an SGO or ‘lives with’ CAO for children who would ‘otherwise’ be in local authority care. Minimising the risk of placement breakdown where the leading cause is financial difficulties, by improving financial stability for kinship carers with legal care orders. Understanding whether an improved financial offer for certain formal kinship carers who apply for a legal care order, and/or obtain a legal care order, enables kinship families to consider placements outside of the care system; and,To alleviate care placement pressures on local authorities.Further information is available in the linked documents.
Dates
See below estimates of dates for the project
Key Date
Timing
EOI window opens
16 June 2025
Clarification window begins
16 June 2025
Clarification window closes
23:59 30 June 2025
EOI window closes
23:59 14 July 2025
Assessment of EOI’s received
14 July 2025 – 29 August 2025
Final DfE approval
Mid-September 2025
Grant Offer Letters issued by the DfE
Late September 2025
Grant funding agreements between the DfE and pilot local authorities in place (including up-front Section 31 grant payments distributed for set-up costs)
October 2025
Pilot delivery commences
November 2025
How to apply
Please use the link provided to access the full application guidance.