Am a complete newcomer to all of this stuff, I've created a multi-layered image in Inkspace and I can't import the .svg file into AE, is there a file path I can save the image in through Inkspace which is compatible with AE AND ensures that all of my layers go through to AE. I've tried .png and .eps and while the image imports, the layers do not.

From the forums it seems that there aren't a lot of people using Inkspace AND After Effects? It's impossible to find anything online instructing on using both.

Well,.. Illustrator CS5 has a rather decent SVG export now, creating very clean code unlike previous versions. The import however is a bit different as AI has a very limited support of SVG really (basically SVG Tiny 1.2) to cater for the mobile world. Adobe however is not really the kind of company to create the tools to kill off it's pet product Flash, so I guess After Effects are less than supportive of it.

You can try import your SVG into the Gimp though and see if the layers are retained. Layers however are not an SVG standard and Inkscape simulates them by using group <G> tags with some Inkscape XML extension code to let Inkscape know what it is, so I am afraid Gimp ignores it. Try saving it as plain SVG, opening it in AI CS5 and then exporting it to photoshop to see if you can get it to emulate the layers. Otherwise pdf export is your best option.

And in general I don think many people use after effects in combination with Inkscape. Blender is a more viable option for FLOSS and has good SVG support by now.