It is for the first time that the Kinship care in the UK has come to limelight and the credit for this effort entirely goes to the University of Bristol, which has recently released a major report, published in partnership with the charity Buttle UK and the Hadley Centre for Adoption and Foster Care Studies at the university, who with full effort compiled the information based on the 2001 census.

The newly published report reveals the full extent of kinship care in the UK. According to the report, approx 173,200 children in the UK in 2001 were being raised by family members but definitely not by their parents.

The report also showcased the worst face of poverty among Kinship caretakers as among all, 94% cases were noticed to be informal arrangements, which definitely could be the result of the people missing out extra financial help. Also, the experts believe that the above figure would have significantly increased now over the last 10 years.

Dr. Julie Selwin from the Hadley Centre explains why, "In a situation where a social worker places a child with a relative, those families are entitled to some financial support. The vast majority of grandparents and sisters etc who are trying to bring up children are doing so without any financial support”.