Supporting Kinship Carers

Rory Palmer, Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Bosworth, is supporting a local action group calling for more support for Kinship Carers.

Rory Palmer met recently with Sandy Chamberlain who is organising a support group for kinship carers in the Hinckley area. Kinship carers provide care for family members, often children and young people, without the financial and practical support available to foster carers.

A petition has been set up on the Downing Street website calling for more support and Rory Palmer has given his backing to the petition campaign.

It is estimated that there are around 200,000 young people being cared for by family members, known as kinship carers.

Rory Palmer said:

“It is essential more support is made available for kinship carers, which should be on a parity with the support available for foster carers. I want to see fairer financial support but also more practical support through local councils and other agencies.”

“Kinship carers do an invaluable job, without them many young people would not have the chance to be brought up and cared for in a family home. After meeting Sandy Chamberlain in Hinckley I am convinced of the need for more support for kinship carers and that’s why I am backing the Downing Street petition.”

“I am looking forward to working with Sandy and her colleagues to raise awareness of this campaign and get better recognition locally and nationally of the work kinship carers do.”

Local kinship carer and campaigner Sandy Chamberlain from Hinckley said:

“There are over 200,000 people like me in the country, we are called Kinship Carers, we do the same job as Foster Carers but because it is for a family member we do not get treated the same, in fact Kinship Carers are not even treated equally from County to County. I was so frustrated at not being able to talk to other people in my position that I set up Hinckley ROCKS, a support group specifically for Kinship Carers.”

“I am at present involved in raising the profile of Kinship Caring, nationwide. I am grateful to Rory for his support and for getting involved and helping me to raise awareness of our online petition and our plight in general, and for his support for Hinckley ROCKS.”