A pivotal time for kinship care: learning, reflecting and shaping what comes next
Our theme for the kinship conference this year is, Delivering better support for kinship families: research and policy in action. Now an annual event following Kinship Care Week, the conference provides a prime opportunity to pause and reflect on the latest developments in policy, law and practice with kinship families. At a time of significant change across the sector, we look forward to facilitating space to come together to learn, think critically and creatively and leave feeling informed and inspired.
Since last year’s conference, important new research has been published around kinship carers’ support networks. CoramBAAF was pleased to co-author Making a Support Plan – Guidance for professionals that evolved from the research and is informing our development work for Form KS – Kinship Support Planning which we hope to publish in 2027. During the conference, researchers and kinship carers will share their insights so we can meaningfully embed it into practice and we are looking forward to working with local authorities in the autumn to pilot Form KS. Feedback from practitioners, kinship carers, panels, ADMs and legal advisors during the pilot of Form K was instrumental in shaping the final publication and we anticipate the same collaborative approach will equally shape Form KS.
There is much to digest in the Law Commission Kinship care: consultation paper and there will be an opportunity for delegates to join a workshop co-facilitated by one of our legal consultants and a Law Commission solicitor. The session will encourage healthy debate and discussion that can be taken away to inform the consultation.
Coram was delighted to be awarded the bid to undertake the DfE research into the experiences of children and young people growing up in kinship care. We are grateful to those local authorities who have enabled and supported the recruitment of kinship families for the research, and of course to the children and young people who have so generously shared their time and experiences. Colleagues from Coram Impact and Evaluation, alongside the young advisors with experience of kinship care who are involved in the research, will join us to share reflections and emerging themes.
As in previous years, we are also delighted to be joined by Jahnine Davis, National Kinship Care Ambassador. Jahnine will reflect on her two years in post, having spoken at our first conference in 2024 after being in her role for just a week! Her insights paper Improving the kinship local offer and approach to kinship care provides valuable commentary on the complexities of kinship care and the inherent tensions when we continue to think about kinship care as part of the fostering and adoption paradigm.
Our full programme will be published in September, with details of the other workshops and Pitching Good Practice spots, as well as our key note speaker. There's still time to share the practice that you feel proud of and think other local authorities would benefit from learning about. You can submit using the link above until the 7 September, 2026.
With less than 20 tickets remaining, we look forward to welcoming you to what promises to be another engaging and thought-provoking conference.