Kinship care

Support for Kinship Carers

Holding hands

The Trust offers varied support to kinship families, according to need, including access to advice, training, social work or family support, family group conferencing, peer support groups and signposting to universal services.

Advice for kinship carers often consists of guidance to help access services that are universally available to children who live with their parents. Kinship carers may find it difficult to discover what resources are available for children living in their area. Birmingham Children's Trust is committed to ensuring that information about local services will be made more easily available to kinship carers.

For families who live in Birmingham, the city council provide valuable universal support and advice for families with children of all ages.

For carers who live in Birmingham, our Children's Advice and Support Service (CASS) can provide advice, support and guidance on a wide range of services to support children, young people and families.

The Children’s Advice and Support Service (CASS) provides a single point of contact for  members of the public, including kinship families and professionals who want to access support or raise concerns about a child.

Their opening hours are:

  • Monday to Thursday: 8.45am to 5.15pm
  • Friday: 8.45am to 4.15pm

Their contact details are:

  • Phone: 0121 303 1888
  • Emergency out-of-hours: 0121 675 4806

Supporting Kinship Carers with a Special Guardianship or Child Arrangements Order

For Kinship Carers with a Special Guardianship or Child Arrangements Order the SGO post order support team can provide help and support. 

Following the granting of SGO the support team offer the following for a minimum of six months:

  • A dedicated worker
  • Access to a duty line for information, advice and support
  • Advice on issues about Special Guardianship
  • Consultation and mediation with a range of other agencies, for example, education, housing and health
  • Advice in relation to working with birth parents and managing family time / contact
  • Access to training and support groups
  • Membership of Kinship (national charity providing independent advice and support to all kinship carers)
  • Advice in respect of financial support, financial assessments and signposting in respect of benefits
  • Signposting for therapeutic support for children
  • Support with applications to the Adoption Support Fund to access therapeutic support services to meet the emotional, behavioural and psychological needs of the children in their care.  They also provide advice on eligibility
  • Advice regarding Pupil Premium and Pupil Premium Plus
  • Advice and support with managing behaviour / identity / family time / life story work
  • Advise on working with other agencies

If your SGO was granted some time ago and you did not receive, or access post order support at the time and you would like some help now you can contact the team and access the support whenever you need it.

Email: SGOandPrivateFosteringSupportTeam@birminghamchildrenstrust.co.uk

Duty phone number: 0121 303 2621

Supporting Private Foster Carers

Private Foster Carers should initially contact the Children’s Advice and Support Service (CASS) to notify the Trust that they are private foster carers, an assessment will then be arranged and support provided by the Special Guardianship and Private Fostering team.

Email: SGOandPrivateFosteringSupportTeam@birminghamchildrenstrust.co.uk

Duty phone number: 0121 303 2621