Jacqueline spoke passionately about kinship carers — family or friends who step in, often at a moment’s notice, to care for children when parents can’t (due to reasons like illness, imprisonment, substance abuse or neglect) , while moving Motion 13 – Kinship Care and Fostering.
There are thousands of kinship carers across the UK — and many face serious financial struggles. Over a third lose more than 50% of their income because they have no entitlement to paid leave, unlike adoptive parents. Many end up having to cut their hours or leave their jobs entirely — especially single carers. This also worsens the gender pay gap, as most kinship carers are women.
Jacqueline highlighted that employers often have no policies to support kinship carers — something as simple as including them in adoption leave policies could make a big difference.
The motion calls for the NEC and National Women’s Committee to support branches to negotiate with employers to put proper policies in place and become “kinship friendly.”