WHAT children need more than anything is love. People to support, protect and fight for them.

Sadly, not every child has a happy family home.

In the worst cases, it might be necessary to move a child away from their family and into care, to give them a chance of a better, safer life.

But we think that – sometimes – there can be another way.

A child’s godparents, aunts or uncles may want to step in and provide support to children living with their parents – but money worries can often make this difficult in the long term.

That’s why we trying out new Family Network Support Packages – just one part of our reform plans set out in our children's social care strategy, Stable Homes Built on Love.

From this summer, we will support families in pilot areas in this position by providing them with direct assistance.

With £7.8m we want to help around 500 families and their parents to receive support from family networks.

Every home is different. It might be that the council simply provides a new bed.

Or it might provide a financial grant to top up wages if a grandad has to reduce his working hours to help provide care to a child and their parents.

And to help families make the most of this support, it will be tax free where it's paid in cash.

That means families keep the full payment, instead of paying 20% in income tax.

This won’t be right for every child.

But with this tax-free funding in place, we can help godparents, uncles and aunts step in to provide a stable, loving home.

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