The event was organised by Grandparents Plus as part of the Kinship Care Alliance's campaign to raise awareness of the needs of the carers and the children they look after.
According to the charity, 16 per cent of local authority foster placements are with family and friends carers.
The Alliance called for ten steps towards a better deal for carers and their children (see box), including making a financial allowance for carers and urging the Government to collect official data on the numbers of children in this situation.
If successful, amendments will be tabled to the Child Poverty Bill.
The Kinship Care Alliance was set up in 2006 to develop a joint policy agenda designed to prevent children from being unnecessarily raised outside their family and to enhance outcomes for children who cannot live with their parents and are living with relatives.
It is led by the Family Rights Group and made up of voluntary agencies, local authorities and academics, including Grandparents Plus, the National Children's Bureau, the Grandparents' Association and the Who Cares Trust.
Sam Smethers, chief executive of Grandparents Plus, said, 'Following the event, children's minister Dawn Primarolo said she will look again at bridging the gap for grandparent carers and at data collection. Our recommendations have also been raised in Prime Minister's Questions.'
More than one in three grandparent carers lives below the poverty line, according to the charity's research. Eighty per cent describe themselves as isolated or worried, with only 8 per cent saying they feel supported.
Colleen McManus, a grandparent from Nottingham who cares for her two young grandchildren and receives a Special Guardianship Allowance, told Nursery World, 'There is no support whatsoever. As a group, grandparent carers are totally overlooked and ignored in society. The main problems are the lack of financial and emotional support. My allowance is put against my housing benefit and council tax, and because I look after my grandchildren I am unable to work. I feel very alone and like I don't fit in anywhere. Something needs to be done now.'
THE KINSHIP CARE ALLIANCE'S TEN STEPS INCLUDE:
- A new culture of respect for family and friends carers who take on the care of children, often in difficult family circumstances.
- A national allowance for family and friends raising a child for more than 28 days as an alternative to the child being taken into care.
- Official data gathered on children being raised by family and friends carers.
- New Government guidance so family and friends foster carers receive the same allowances as non-relative foster carers.
- Children in family and friends care treated as children in need, with tailored policies and support.
Further information at www.frg.org.uk and www.grandparentsplus.org.uk
