Calls for Peterborough to take part in kinship carers trial

Peterborough's council leaders have joined MPS to call for the city to be included in a trial to financially support kinship carers.

The Labour-controlled authority has written to the Children's Minister, Janet Daby MP, saying the large number of children in care in the city would benefit from being placed with relatives.

In the Budget on 30 October, the government announced £44m towards trial financial support for relatives who care for a child unable to stay with their parents.

The move has been welcomed by the charity Kinship, but it warned the trial should not stop progress towards a wider rollout of financial allowances.

Kinship estimates that 141,000 children in England and Wales are in kinship care, which means they have been taken in by a family member or a friend.

The trial announced in the Budget will include 10 local authority areas.

The letter sent by Peterborough City Council urges the government to consider the city as one of them.

It has been signed by Labour council leader Dennis Jones, six other leading cabinet members - and the city's two Labour MPs, Sam Carling and Andrew Pakes.

The letter says Peterborough is "the second fastest growing city in the UK" and faces challenges in the area of children's care.

The letter goes on to say the council is "confident that our involvement in any pilot programme will drive meaningful change for our children".

Speaking in the House of Commons after the Budget, Sam Carling MP welcomed the funding pledge.

He described it as "a subject close to my heart and to those of my Labour colleagues on Peterborough City Council".

He added that kinship carers did "a tremendous and critical job that too often goes unnoticed".