‘Raised by Relatives: The Experiences of Black and Asian Kinship Carers’ Action Planning Workshop

I had been looking forward to the Raised by Relatives action planning workshop since the report’s publication at the end of March. The workshop was an opportunity for kinship carers and sector representatives to work together to turn the report’s recommendations into actionable steps. As people arrived, there was time to get a drink and meet other attendees. A personal highlight was meeting some of the kinship carers who had participated in the research, in person. Each of us was assigned a table number to ensure a mix of experience and expertise.

The workshop was hosted by Kinship and facilitated by brilliant colleagues from Laurelle Brown Training and Consultancy and TPX Impact. Beverley Barnett-Jones opened the event, which was held at the Foundry in London. She highlighted the barriers and challenges faced by kinship carers from Black and Asian communities and reflected on her own experiences growing up and being cared for by family. We then heard from Sharon McPherson, co-founder of Families in Harmony and also a peer researcher on the Raised by Relatives project. Sharon shared her experiences of being a kinship carer over the past 20 years and emphasised how necessary it was to understand the specific challenges faced by kinship carers from Black and Asian communities. Her account was both honest and moving; we all appreciated her generosity in sharing with the group.

An ice-breaker exercise gave each table time to introduce themselves and share what had brought them to the event. This was followed by a chance to briefly set the scene with some data about kinship families in England. I gave a summary of the report and findings. Next: the main event. Each of the fourteen recommendations from the report had been printed and hung up around the room. Everyone was given time to get up, read the recommendations, and choose the five they felt were most important. Following a wonderful lunch with time to sit outside and talk amongst ourselves, we took our seats for the final activity of the day. Facilitators at each of the tables helped us produce three actionable steps for each of the five recommendations, which could be taken forward to implement the recommendations.

Throughout the day, an illustrator observed and created ‘scenes’ using reflections and insights she had noticed, which gave us all time to stop and think about the day. We ended the day with warm goodbyes, excitement about moving forward using the calls to action we had developed, and a group photo! I left with a sense of gratitude, hopefulness, and a feeling that we had achieved something that will contribute to positive changes for Black, Asian, and marginalised kinship families.

Written by researcher Dr Priya Tah.