Kinship carers are being forced to sleep on sofa beds so children in their care have a bed of their own, Sky News has witnessed, as a lack of support is blamed for plunging families into poverty.
Some 141,000 children across England and Wales whose parents cannot look after them are are being raised by a family member or friend, according to the Kinship charity.
“You just think, we need to stop these kids going into care, to strangers. We need to keep them in the family,” explains Leasa, who took in two nephews with special needs five years ago.
Leasa and her partner Oly have a son of their own and have given up their own bedroom to sleep on a sofa-bed to accommodate the children. It has left Leasa with back and neck pain.
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“We are on top of each other,” she tells Sky News. “We’re sleeping, eating, watching TV, everything, in the family area.”
As she folds out the sofa bed, Leasa points towards the end of the mattress and exclaims: “If you sat here, you’d literally sink.”
Recent UK assessments suggest the cost of raising a child to age 18 is now estimated at £250,000, reflecting substantial increases in essential household spending.
“We have two children, so that’s half a million pounds,” says Oly. “What would it cost for them to even privately rent us a three-bedroom house for the same period?”
One in five kinship carers report either they or a child in the family sleeps in unsuitable conditions due to lack of space and support, according to data from the Kinship charity.
Unlike foster carers, most kinship carers are not entitled to a financial allowance, emotional or practical support. The charity warns this leaves many families impoverished.
Essex-based midwife Nash took in three of her sister’s children.
“My sister was diagnosed with bowel and liver cancer in January 2024 and passed away in May,” she says. “We didn’t expect her to go so quickly.
“It was a no-brainer that the children, aged 15, eight and six, would come and live with me and my husband and our four children.”
Nash’s employer had leave policies for maternity and adoption but had no equivalent for kinship carers.
“They said any time off would have to be unpaid,” she explains. “I’ve been a midwife for 16 years and love my job and I was a good midwife, but I can’t carry on doing it full-time with no time off work to be with the children.”
Nash quit her job and says it left her devastated. “It’s sad because losing my job feels like another big loss.”
Kinship charity’s chief executive Lucy Peake says it is “outrageous” that kinship carers, including grandparents, “are having to sleep on floors and sofas so the children they love have somewhere to sleep”.
Many are spending savings and pensions, or going into debt, she says, “and making daily sacrifices to raise children who have experienced trauma, separation and loss”.
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The UK is set to trial Family Network Support Packages, which provide funding and practical support to extended families with caring responsibilities. A new law is also due to be introduced to make sure councils set out clear support for carers.
A Department of Education spokesperson said: “Our ambitious reforms to the children’s social care system will help keep more families together safely, reducing the number of children needing care across the country as part of our Plan for Change.”
In Scotland, kinship caring accounts for 35% of placements away from home for looked-after children. Proposals “to provide consistent and fair support” for kinship families have been published, setting out baseline support, improvements in accessibility and transparency around financial help.
