Co-producing research into kinship care: opportunities and challenges
Project Dates
September 2022- December 2025
Funder
ESRC Impact Acceleration Award and Department for Education
Project Summary
This project set out to identify opportunities and challenges in involving kinship carers as co-producers of research into kinship care. It has made recommendations on how kinship carers can be involved at all stages of the research process and identified lessons for the research and practice community, universities, funders and policy makers. The research findings have underpinned the development of a practical toolkit designed and co-authored by kinship carers. We believe that this is the first co-produced report into kinship care research and practical toolkit for the sector.
Why this project is important
Co-produced research in other fields such as health and disability is well-established. This is not the case in kinship care research. There is a need to understand both the opportunities and barriers to involving kinship carers at all stages of research from co-shaping the research questions through to dissemination. In this way, research has the potential to be more impactful and relevant to the needs of policy-makers, researchers and practitioners Lancaster University and Kinship already had a well-established partnership. In 2019 they had received ESRC IAA funding to co-produce two films (with CoramBAAF), "The First Day of Forever: becoming a special guardian" and "Special Guardianship: An Agenda for Change" with accompanying materials and policy and practice recommendations
Study Aims
The study had four aims:
1. What research into kinship care, if any, has been co-produced since 2000 and on what issues?
2. Are there any co-produced toolkits to guide best practice?
3. Is there an appetite for coproduction amongst kinship carers?
4. If so, what are the opportunities and barriers, and how can they be addressed.
Methods
We carried out a multi-strand study over three years. It comprised:
- a scoping review and broader literature review,
- three online focus groups with 21 kinship carers,
- three face-to-face workshops with a smaller number of these kinship carers, and
- an online roundtable with six researchers who had experience in participatory research.
Key findings
- There is a major lack of co-produced research into kinship care.
- Kinship carers and researchers wish to see the introduction of co-produced research that draws on kinship carers’ lived experience. They believe co-production has the potential to create new highly relevant knowledge for service providers, policy-makers, kinship carers, practitioners, researchers and funders alike.
- Kinship carers feel they can play a part in all types of research, subject to relevant training, peer and organisational support, appropriate remuneration, and recognition of their own practical commitments.
- Kinship carers see commonalities in their experiences. They challenge the siloing of the kinship carer community by type of kinship arrangement.
- Some universities have developed pioneering initiatives to promote engagement with peer researchers and facilitate co-produced research. Although these initiatives are not targeted at kinship carers, they provide a useful framework that can be adapted and built upon.
Challenges
- There is a major gap in the evidence base on co-produced kinship care research and no specific toolkits to guide best practice
- Kinship carers feel excluded from the opportunity to produce research that involves them from the get-go through to the final output and dissemination.
- Kinship carers call for research to be more inclusive of the diversity of kinship carers.
- There are specific issues that must be considered when involving kinship carers in coproduced research.
- Engagement with universities can be hampered by their administrative processes to employing and involving kinship carers as co-producers
- Significant changes in research culture, infrastructure and practice are needed if coproduction is to become a viable reality
- Without financial support to trusted organisations, such as Kinship, to lead the research strategy with key partners, co-produced research is likely to be piecemeal and limited in impact.
Conclusions
Recent policy and legislation relating to kinship care are in line with co-production in relation to practice, but it has not yet been linked to research. Although there is growing interest in incorporating lived experience into research there is a lack of evidence and guidance on how this should be done. This report and accompanying toolkit offer a roadmap that recognises both opportunities and challenges for the research, practice, policy communities and funders. There are specific issues that must be considered when involving kinship carers in coproduced research. The report makes a number of recommendations to build on the opportunities and address the challenges.
Publications/other outputs
1. Co-producing research into kinship care: a report into opportunities and challenges (Harwin, J. Walsh, C., Raja, A. Mcpherson, S. Peake, L and Yeomans, L. Lancaster University, December 2025)
2. Co-producing research into kinship care: a practical toolkit.
Latest News
A webinar will be held on December 8th, 2025 (11.30 – 1pm) when the report and toolkit will be launched.
Research Team
Professor Judith Harwin, Co-director of the Centre for Child and Family Justice Research, Lancaster University
External Collaborators
Kinship. The team members at Kinship were Dr Lucy Peake Chief Executive, Kinship, Clare Walsh, Peer Researcher, Anam Raja, Research Manager, Kinship, Sharon McPherson, Peer Researcher and Co-Director of Families in Harmony, Lydia Yeomans, former Research Manager, Kinship, Laura Bradley, former Participation and Involvement Manager, Kinship, Vikkie Chapman, Transformation Manager & Executive Assistant, Kinship, Vickie Grey, Regional Programmes Manager, Kinship and kinship carer.
Contact
For more information about this project, please contact Judith Harwin (j.e.harwin@lancaster.ac.uk).
