Fellow's Profile
Fellow's Profile
Kinship care: connecting and developing ecosystems of support
Improving information and support for kinship carers who are raising a relative's or friend's child.
2024
London
I've been the CEO at national charity Kinship since 2015. My Fellowship will focus on ways to improve support for kinship families. I'll be visiting the USA to explore kinship navigator programs. These place kinship care experts in local areas to provide a supportive 'one-stop shop', helping carers to find information and access the support and services they need.
My Fellowship is timely because more children grow up in the care system than in foster care, but support for kinship carers and their children is poorly developed. With the growing focus on kinship care, I am interested in how we develop, support and sustain the kinship care ecosystem, so that families are well supported. Kinship navigator programs are a promising way of doing this with strong evidence of impact, including enabling more children to remain within their family network rather than the care system. This matters because outcomes for young people in kinship care are generally better than in the care system.
The Fellowship is an incredible opportunity for me to explore how kinship navigator programs could be introduced in the UK and I hope to implement learning through Kinship and partners in future.
Lucy Peake CF 2024 was a guest on Radio 4's Woman's Hour. Lucy who is the CEO of the charity Kinship, was talking about their new research that 40% of kinship carers are forced to claim benefits or increase their benefits when they step in to take on the care of a child from a family member. She explained why some kinship carers want the same parental rights as others in a parental role, like an adoptive parent.
By Lucy Peake, 12 February 2026
All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.
Lucy Peake CF 2024 was a guest on Radio 4's Woman's Hour. Lucy who is the CEO of the charity Kinship, was talking about their new research that 40% of kinship carers are forced to claim benefits or increase their benefits when they step in to take on the care of a child from a family member. She explained why some kinship carers want the same parental rights as others in a parental role, like an adoptive parent.
By Lucy Peake, 12 February 2026
All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.
