Every day, grandparents, aunts, uncles, older siblings and other relatives step forward to care for children when their parents are unable to do so. Kinship care helps children remain connected to their families, communities, culture and identity, and plays a vital role in preventing unnecessary family separation. Yet, the people providing this care are often left without the recognition and support they need.
At the ISPCAN Rise Up Policy Forum in Melbourne, Family for Every Child and Lumos brought this challenge to the centre of the conversation through their session, Caring for the Carers: The Case for a Cross-Sector Approach to Kinship Care. The session brought together Lucy Rolington (Lumos), Dr. Rob Thomson (Family for Every Child), Raju Ghimire (Voice of Children, Nepal & Family for Every Child), Md Shakil Ahmed (Kinship Care Experienced Youth, Bangladesh) and Ms. Nirmalee Perera (Department of Probation and Child Care Services, Sri Lanka) to connect global evidence with professional and lived experience.
The session shared findings from Family for Every Child’s 2026 global kinship care policy survey, conducted in partnership with Lumos. Responses from 21 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, Central Asia, Latin America and Anglophone common-law systems provide a global picture of how kinship care is recognised, prioritised and supported.
The findings show that kinship care is widely recognised, but also a significant gap between recognition and support. While 76% of countries formally recognise kinship care in law, only 48% recognise customary or traditional forms. And although 81% have a kin-first policy in principle, only 38% specifically address disadvantaged children within kinship care policy. For informal kinship carers, the gap is particularly stark: across seven types of support, they receive support in just 28% of countries, compared with 60% for biological parents and 56% for foster parents.
Legal recognition can also become a barrier rather than a pathway to support. 95% of countries require formal legal status for kinship carers to have decision-making authority for children, while 62% or more have no dedicated mechanism to monitor informal kinship care arrangements. Only 29% of countries can confirm that their data distinguishes between formal and informal kinship carers. Without visibility in national systems, many children and carers risk remaining invisible when governments plan services, allocate resources and measure progress.
The research points to five priorities for governments and child protection actors: clearly define all forms of kinship care in law; recognise and support both informal and formal arrangements; extend support services to all kinship families; ensure legal status is never a barrier to accessing basic support or protection; and ensure national data counts all kinship carers. These changes can help move kinship care from being recognised in principle to being properly supported in practice.
Join us for Global Kinship Care Week 2026, from 5–11 October!
Led by 20 Family for Every Child organisations across 19 countries, the Global Kinship Care Week promotes kinship care as a key strategy to strengthen families and prevent family breakdown, while advocating for improved policies and practices to support kinship care worldwide. This year's campaign will highlight the key findings from our global policy survey and create opportunities for people worldwide to join the call for change.
Join our campaign workshop on 8 September to learn about our plans, discover how you can get involved and receive the campaign participation pack, including key messages, assets and calls to action:
https://www.changemakersforchildren.community/gkcw26-workshop
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