'Kinship care is so important', says Ed Davey

Each year, thousands of grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings and family friends step up to support a child who is unable to live with their birth parents.

Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey has shared his experience of kinship care in an interview with Sky News.

People have been sharing their experiences in response to Ed's interview.

Kinship Care Bill

Liberal Democrat MP Munira Wilson has introduced the Kinship Care Bill in the House of Commons. This bill calls on the Government to provide all friends and relatives who look after a child who cannot live with their birth parents with an allowance of at least £137 a week: the same level as for foster carers.

Every child that goes into kinship care instead of local authority care could save the taxpayer more than £35,000 a year. Yet Government policy treats kinship carers as a Cinderella service, denying most of them the support received by foster carers or adoptive parents.

Munira's Kinship Care Bill would:

• Provide a weekly allowance to all kinship carers at the same level as for foster carers;
• Give kinship carers the right to paid leave when a child starts living with them;
• Support the education of children in kinship care, such as by giving them Pupil Premium Plus funding and priority for their first choice of school.

Liberal Democrats will stand up for carers, so we can provide their children with a better start in life, no matter their background.