Kinship Care in Scotland: Education & Financial Support Guide

Around 5,000 children in Scotland are in formal kinship care — raised by grandparents, aunts, uncles or family friends because their parents can’t look after them. The real number, including informal arrangements that never go through the council, is almost certainly double that. If you’re one of these carers, this guide is for you.

Formal vs informal kinship care

The distinction matters because it determines what financial support you can access.

Formal kinship care means the local authority or the courts are involved. Either the council has placed a “looked after” child with you and approved you as a kinship carer, or you hold a kinship care order from the court, which gives you shared parental responsibilities and rights and means the child is no longer legally looked after. You may receive a Kinship Care Allowance of at least the Scottish Recommended Allowance.

Informal kinship care is a private family arrangement. Perhaps the parents agreed that grandma would take over, or circumstances changed gradually. The council isn’t involved, there’s no order in place, and no automatic right to the kinship care allowance — though you may be eligible for other benefits.

The kinship care allowance

You may get a Kinship Care Allowance if you care for a looked-after child, or if you hold a kinship care order and the child was previously looked after or is at risk of becoming looked after (the group the Kinship Care Assistance (Scotland) Order 2016 covers). The council pays at least the Scottish Recommended Allowance — the council where the child originally lived, which may not be yours. It is currently around:

• At least £177.68 (age 0–4), £206.71 (5–15) or £283.35 (16–17) per week per child — the Scottish Recommended Allowance; some councils pay more
• Council support runs until the child turns 18 while they are looked after (including under a permanence order or compulsory supervision order), but until they turn 16 under a kinship care order

Informal kinship carers do not automatically receive this. Some councils offer discretionary kinship payments, but these are typically lower and not guaranteed.

Becoming a formal kinship carer: how the process works

Every council runs its own version, but the shape is broadly the same across Scotland:

1. First contact. Phone your council and ask for the kinship care team (or social work children and families if the switchboard doesn’t recognise the term). Explain the arrangement — how long the child has lived with you and why.
2. Assessment. A social worker visits your home, talks to you and the child, and looks at the practicalities: sleeping arrangements, your health, your support network. This is not a test you pass by having a perfect house; it’s about whether the child is safe and settled with you.
3. Background checks. Expect PVG (disclosure) checks on you and other adults in the household, plus references. This mirrors what foster carers go through, though the process is usually lighter.
4. Approval and support plan. If approved, the council confirms your status as a kinship carer, sets up the allowance, and should agree a support plan covering the child’s needs — education, health, contact with parents.

Two things carers consistently report. First, the assessment feels intrusive but the social workers involved are generally on your side — they want the arrangement to work, because the alternative is usually a foster placement with strangers. Second, it’s worth putting everything in writing: keep copies of every letter and email, and ask for decisions (especially about money) to be confirmed in writing. If the council refuses to assess you or turns down an allowance, ask for the decision in writing and take it to the council’s complaints procedure — Citizens Advice Scotland can help you word the challenge.

Education support: what kinship children can access

Kinship children are entitled to every educational support available to any child in Scotland, plus some additional provisions:

• Funded early learning and childcare from age 2 — kinship children are one of the groups who qualify for the 1,140 funded hours a year earlier than everyone else, from age 2 rather than 3. This is worth thousands of pounds of free provision and many kinship carers never hear about it. See our eligible 2-year-old childcare guide.
• School clothing grant — apply through your council on the same basis as any parent. You qualify based on benefit receipt, and the national minimum is £120 per year for a primary pupil and £150 for secondary. See our clothing grant guide.
• Free school meals — universal for P1–P5; means-tested from P6, worth roughly £400 a year per child. Apply even in the universal phase to unlock the clothing grant — our free school meals guide explains the combined application.
• Education Maintenance Allowance — £30/week for S5/S6 pupils where household income is under £24,421 (one dependent child) or £26,884 (two or more). The EMA is paid to the young person, not the carer, and the full EMA guide covers the attendance conditions.
• School transport — same entitlement as any pupil based on distance from catchment school.
• Additional support needs — kinship children have statistically higher rates of ASN. The school has a duty to identify and support needs regardless of the care arrangement.

Enrolling a kinship child in school

You can enrol the child at your local catchment school using your home address, whether the arrangement is formal or informal — you do not need a court order or parental sign-off to access education. The school may ask for documentation of the care arrangement; a letter from the council or the kinship care order is sufficient, and for informal arrangements a straightforward explanation usually does the job. If a school or council hesitates, contact the council’s education department directly and ask them to confirm the enrolment position in writing.

Mid-year moves are common in kinship care, because children often come to live with relatives at short notice. Councils must find a school place; if the catchment school is full you’ll be offered an alternative, and you can make a placing request for a different school if the offer doesn’t work for your family.

Benefits that stack

Kinship carers can often claim several benefits simultaneously:

• Scottish Child Payment — £28.20/week per child under 16 if you receive a qualifying benefit
• Child Benefit — transferred to you as the primary carer
• Best Start Grant school-age payment — £331.95 one-off in the year the child is first old enough to start P1 (there is no S1 payment)
• Best Start Foods — if the child is under 3
• Council Tax reduction — some councils offer reduced rates for kinship carers

What it can add up to

Take a grandmother formally caring for one eight-year-old grandchild, receiving Universal Credit herself. Over a year, the main strands look like this:

• Kinship care allowance of at least £206.71 a week for a child aged 5–15 — over £10,000 a year from the council
• Scottish Child Payment at £28.20/week — about £1,466 a year
• Child Benefit at £27.05/week for an eldest or only child — about £1,400 a year
• School clothing grant — at least £120 for a primary pupil
• Free school meals (if means-tested criteria are met from P6) — worth roughly £400 a year

Not every strand applies to every household, and the allowance-versus-UC interaction above is exactly where advice pays for itself. But the gap between a fully claimed formal arrangement and an informal one running on Child Benefit alone can easily exceed £10,000 a year — which is why the formalisation conversation matters so much. Our benefits wizard gives you a quick personalised checklist of what to claim, no sign-up required.

University: the £9,000 question

Children who were formally looked after by a local authority — including under a kinship care order — are classified as care-experienced. This unlocks:

• The £9,000 per year non-repayable SAAS bursary (no income test, no repayment, full degree duration)
• Year-round university accommodation (no eviction during holidays)
• Named support contacts at every Scottish university
• Priority access to hardship funds

This is one of the strongest arguments for formalising an informal kinship arrangement before the child turns 18. See our care-experienced students guide for the full picture.

What kinship carers wish they’d known sooner

Three things come up repeatedly when we talk to kinship carers. First: formalise the arrangement if you can. The financial and educational benefits of formal kinship care are significantly better than informal, and the process is less daunting than most people expect. Second: apply for everything. Kinship carers are entitled to the same benefits as any parent plus additional support, but uptake is low because many don’t know what exists. Third: the child’s school needs to know. You don’t have to share every detail, but telling the school that the child is in kinship care allows them to flag additional support and handle sensitive situations (like Mother’s Day activities) with care.

Where to get help

• Kinship Care Advice Service for Scotland (KCASS) (kinship.scot) — the national advice service for kinship carers, with a helpline on 0808 800 0006 and peer support groups
• CELCIS (celcis.org) — the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection, with research and practice guides
• Citizens Advice Scotland — for benefits advice and help navigating the system
• Your council’s kinship care team — every council has one, though they’re not always easy to find on the website. Phone the main switchboard and ask.