Phoned about family position (7)
I believe the answer is:
ranking
'position' is the definition.
(ranking is a kind of position)
'phoned about family' is the wordplay.
'phoned' becomes 'rang' ('ring' can be a synonym of 'phone').
'about' is an insertion indicator.
'family' becomes 'kin' ('kin' can be a synonym of 'family').
'rang' placed around 'kin' is 'RANKING'.
(Other definitions for ranking that I've seen before include "Place among seeds" , "Grading" , "Position in a hierarchy" , "Status" , "Classification" .)