Weekly Foster Care Allowances - Find a freedom of information request

1. Please could you tell me your 2021-22 weekly foster care allowances for all age bands, NOT including any fee/reward element for foster carers.

Please detail any allowances that ALL foster carers can claim in addition to their weekly allowance, e.g. holiday allowance or mileage.

2. Please could you tell me your 2021-22 weekly allowances for former foster carers looking after young people in 18+ Staying Put arrangements, broken down by year 1, year 2, and year 3 if necessary.

1. Foster Carers allowances by age band:

The above allowances cover the following additional costs of caring for a child or young person:

• Food, including school meals.
• Clothing, for further details see paragraph 2.4.
• Household expenditure (electricity, gas, TV, telephone, toiletries etc). 
• Personal expenditure such as pocket money, gifts, magazines, low cost clubs & activities. If the child in placement undertakes one more expensive activity the fostering service will give consideration to covering this cost if it has been previously agreed with your SSW.
• Routine travelling expenses including school bus fare, but excluding specialist appointments e.g. CAMHS, regular hospital visits.
• Day trips including school trips.
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• Transporting children to school within a three mile radius. Mileage for transporting children outside the three mile limit should be agreed upon placement.

An additional four weeks age related allowances will be paid to cover:

• Christmas or another religious festival – one week paid in early December or the month during which the festival occurs.
• Birthdays – one week paid in the week immediately prior to the child’s birthday.
• Holidays – two weeks to be paid on the Friday before the start of the school summer holidays in each year.

If the placement is made after that date it can be applied for through your SSW. This allowance is to contribute to holiday costs either for days out or holidays away. This will not normally be paid if carers have taken a family holiday and not taken the child who has spent the time with respite carers.

School Uniform

A uniform grant will be payable when a child changes school and the school requires him / her to have a set uniform.

a. Up to £100 will be paid for infants and junior schools.

b. Up to £250 will be paid for secondary schools.

c. Up to £250 will be paid for sixth form / college.

These amounts cover all school clothes including that required for sports & technology lessons.

Specialist Items of Clothing

a. Uniforms for clubs e.g. Brownies, Cubs, Cadets, Judo etc will be reimbursed upon receipt up to a maximum of £50.

b. For school leavers a grant of up to £120 will be paid to contribute to the cost of work clothes or interview clothes.

c. Other specialist equipment or clothing will be paid upon production of receipts up to a maximum of £50. This will only be paid once in any 12 month period and should cover equipment for hobbies such as gymnastics, football, ballet, horse riding, etc.

Trips Organised by Schools / Exceptional Holiday Grants

A grant towards the cost of one exceptional holiday or one educational holiday may be payable. Payments cover the cost of the trip up to a maximum of £300 per child. As this is an additional payment for an exceptional holiday, it is unlikely to be paid in successive years.

If the care plan requires contact to take place in the home after 7pm or at weekends and is not at the foster carer’s convenience, a disruption rate of £2.50 per hour will be paid.

If a carer is responsible for taking children to family time away from their home and it is not practicable to return home during contact, a disruption / expenses rate of £4.00 per hour will be paid. This figure will include all parking costs, food purchased and other incidental items.

For mileage agreed by the Directorate, foster carers will be reimbursed at the rate of 45p per mile. In line with HMRC rules, mileage after 10,000 miles will be paid at 25p.

Laundry Costs

A child may occasionally wet the bed and laundry costs arising from this are included in the allowance. However if you are caring for a large group of siblings (three or more) additional support will be available. This should be discussed with your Supervising Social Worker as should any specific examples where additional costs are incurred.

Hospitality during Introductions

Where a foster carer provides hospitality for a family during adoption introductions they can claim for this at a rate of £5 per person per day.

Out of Hours Payments

Mainstream foster carers will be paid £80 if they are approached by the Emergency Duty Team to take a placement out of normal office hours and agree to the placement. In recognition of the disruption and preparation that may have taken place, this payment will be made regardless of whether the child is actually placed.

Children in care are entitled to receive free pre-school placements after their 2nd birthdays. This will require discussion with the education provider.

Playgroup fees will be paid up to a maximum of £25 per week providing they are agreed as being required as part of the child’s care plan.

Day Care

Occasionally carer’s friends or family members who have been checked and approved will provide care for all or part of a day. In order to provide a consistent approach to this issue the following rates will be applied irrespective of whether the provider is a carer or not. These will be paid at an hourly rate based on the age appropriate fostering allowance. For any carer providing day care to a child excluded from school, a payment of £50 per day and £25 per half day (up to 4.5 hours) will be made. This additional payment is intended to be used for educational activities with the young person concerned.

2. The average works out at approximately £181.29 per week.

The range is:

£100.00 per week retainer to £350.00 per week for old placement plus/IFA's

There are a lot of different allowances due to the housing benefit rate, if they are able to claim housing or if they are working.

There is no difference in allowance for years one, two or three with them receiving the same overall payment throughout the three years. The staying put allowance may change dependant on the young person's circumstances.