英国和威尔士有超过14.1万名儿童由亲属照顾者抚养，但这一制度长期得不到与寄养或收养相同的实际、法律和财务支持。1许多亲属照顾者被迫在极短时间内做出改变人生的决定——四分之一的照顾者被给予不到一小时做决定，五分之一被给予不到24小时。1以艾伦和朱莉为例，他们仅被给予10分钟时间决定是否照顾他们严重残疾的10个月大孙女艾拉。1
这种紧迫的决策往往导致严重后果。许多亲属照顾者因此失业、陷入债务并依赖食物银行。1根据Kinship慈善机构首席执行官露西·皮克的表述，亲属照顾者每年为国家节省43亿英镑。1研究表明亲属照顾比住宅或寄养照顾更便宜，且更可能带来更好的儿童结果。1
为改善现状，英国政府启动了一项三年试点计划，向七个地方当局的亲属照顾者提供与寄养者相同的经济补助。1寄养者目前每周获得170至299英镑的补助，具体金额取决于居住地和孩子年龄。1然而，该试点计划仅覆盖5,000名儿童，约占亲属照顾儿童的3.5%。1
Over 141,000 children in England and Wales are being raised by relatives rather than parents, yet kinship carers have long faced a support gap compared to foster and adoptive families 1. Many of these caregivers are given minimal time to make life-altering decisions. According to recent data, one quarter of kinship carers are given less than an hour to decide whether to take on a child, while one in five receive notice of less than 24 hours 1. In one stark example, a couple named Alan and Julie were given just 10 minutes to decide whether to care for their severely disabled 10-month-old granddaughter, Ella 1. Such compressed timelines have forced countless relatives into unemployment, debt, and dependence on food banks 1.
Despite the financial strain, kinship carers provide enormous value to the state. According to Lucy Pick, chief executive of the Kinship charity, these arrangements save the nation £4.3 billion annually 1. Research demonstrates that kinship care is cheaper than residential or foster care and typically produces better outcomes for children 1. Yet foster carers currently receive between £170 and £299 per week in allowances, depending on location and the child's age—support that kinship carers have historically been denied 1.
The UK government has begun to address this disparity through a three-year pilot scheme launched this year, which extends foster-level financial assistance to kinship carers in seven local authorities 1. However, the initiative reaches only 5,000 children, representing just 3.5 percent of all children in kinship care 1. The limited scope underscores the ongoing gap between the urgent needs of these families and the resources currently available to support them.
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