Weekly Foster Care Allowances for all Age Bands - Find a freedom of information request

1. Please could you tell me your 2022-23 weekly foster care allowances for all age bands, not including any fee/reward element for foster carers.

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

3. Please could you tell me your 2022-23 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. The allowances for mainstream foster carers are as follows:

2. 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.

Clothing - for any child who comes into care with inadequate clothing, a discretional grant of up to £100 will be provided to purchase essential clothing items.

School Uniform

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

• Up to £100 will be paid for infants and junior schools.
• Up to £250 will be paid for secondary schools.
• 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

• Uniforms for clubs e.g. Brownies, Cubs, Cadets, Judo etc up to a maximum of £50.
• For school leavers a grant of up to £120 will be paid to contribute to the cost of work clothes or interview clothes.
• 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 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.

Family Time

Foster carers are often best placed to help a child manage time with their family. The allowance includes an element of costs incurred related to family time which may take place in their own home. There may be family time with birth relatives up to three times a week.

Family time will not normally take place in your home after 7pm in the evening or at weekends. However, if the care plan requires family time 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 you are responsible for taking children to family time away from your home and it is not practicable to return home during family time, 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.

Meetings

Being a foster carer involves attending a variety of meetings such as statutory looked after reviews to review and consider the child's care plan, medicals for the child, planning meetings, child protection conferences, specialist input (education, psychologist, medical) etc relating to the child and mileage is payable for these meetings.

Transport

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.

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 placed. However, it will not be paid if carers decline the placement and it is not payable to carers specifically recruited for the emergency scheme.

Playgroup / Nursery Fees

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.

After school activities

The first activity should be funded for from the weekly fostering allowance. For additional activities, the fostering service will fund up to £25 per week for one additional activity that has been 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. 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

Educational Support

Lincolnshire County Council is committed to raising the educational attainment of children in care. To assist school children, particularly those at Key Stage 2 (10-11 years) and those beginning either GCSE or A Level studies etc, a grant to purchase study guides will be made available. For Key Stage 2 or any junior school aged child this will be a maximum of £20 and for children in Key Stage 4 a maximum of £50.

Insurance

As a carer they must have buildings and content insurance and notify their insurers of their fostering status. If this results in an increase in your premiums, we will meet any additional premium.

3. Please see below.

Whilst the level of financial support payable will depend upon individual needs and circumstances, former foster carers will be paid an allowance that will cover all reasonable costs of supporting the care leaver to remain living with them. Clear information will be provided to foster carers on the financial support which may be provided for staying put arrangements, in order to help foster carers plan well in advance whether they wish to participate in such arrangements.

When deciding upon the level of financial support payable, careful consideration will have to be given to the impact of the 'staying put' arrangement on the family's financial position. The impact will vary from family to family. It will be necessary to consider:

• • How extending placements will impact on the allowances provided by the Local Authority and whether other funding, e.g. funding for housing related support, will contribute to meeting Staying Put costs;
• • Whether additional allowances provided when the child was a foster child to ensure they were embedded in the family will continue, for example holiday allowances, birthday and Christmas/festival allowances;
• • Any financial contributions from the young person from their wages, salary, benefits or educational allowances. Depending on their circumstances, young people who remain in a Staying Put arrangement may be able to claim means tested benefits for their personal needs from their eighteenth birthday;
• • How the income tax, national insurance and welfare benefits situation of carers may be affected by post-18 payments; • Insurance issues including liability and household insurance

 Staying Put Allowances

The financial package for the former carer will be equivalent to that received through fostering allowances minus the allowance made to the young person.

This is made up of funding from:

• • Housing benefit/Universal Credit - the amount varies according to area;
• • Any contribution from the young person, from income or entitlement to grants, allowances or benefits;
• • LCC Staying Put funding will make up the balance of the cost.

Financial Contributions From Young People

If the young person is employed or has an income of more than the current Income Support Allowance they will be expected to make a contribution to the Staying Put arrangement.

If a young person's income varies on a weekly basis, it may be averaged over a six week period to determine the level of the young person's contribution to the Staying Put arrangement. If the young person's total average income over a 6 week period exceeds the current Income Support Allowance they will be expected to contribute 50% of their income over the current Income Support Allowance towards the placement costs, up to a maximum of the Shared Room Rate Housing Benefit for the relevant area plus Living Allowance.

Those in further education are eligible to claim Income Support and Housing Benefit at the Local Housing Allowance one bedroomed rate. These benefits are deducted from the previous fostering (support) allowance made to the 'providers' (landlord). The young person will make a contribution called a Living Allowance to the provider toward their upkeep. The provider will not be responsible for the young person's living expenses; clothing, personal allowance or sundry expenses. The Housing Benefit is also given to the provider as rent.

Those not in education and available for work will be expected to claim Job Seekers Allowance and Housing Benefit; they must be actively seeking education or employment. The same conditions will apply as above.

The Leaving Care Worker will continue to encourage Young Person to access employment. This may mean the contribution from the Staying Put budget is higher as they may be unable to claim Local Housing Allowance.

Where a young person's level of income is so low that they are unable to contribute the former carer will suffer no detriment, and if necessary the council will make the provision where it cannot be found from another source.

Financial arrangements will be reviewed at a minimum on an annual basis, or earlier if there is a significant change in financial circumstances.

6.3 Means Tested Benefits

Where:

• A young person continues to reside with their former foster carer after their eighteenth birthday on a non-commercial and familial basis; and
• The child was Looked After immediately prior to their eighteenth birthday; and
• The payments are made by the local authority to the carer under section 23C of the Children Act 1989 (continuing functions in respect of former relevant children).

Then the payments are disregarded in calculating the carers' entitlement to means-tested benefits.

When a commercial arrangement is made, (i.e. any element of the cost of the arrangement comes from a source other than section 23C), the non-section 23C element will be taken into account in the calculation of the carer's own means-tested benefit claim.

Additionally, the disregard is lost on the whole payment (section 23C and non-section 23C elements) when the young person first leaves the Staying Put arrangement, should the young person return to their former foster/Staying Put carer or move to another carer after their eighteenth birthday.

6.4 Housing Benefit/Universal Credit

There may be Housing Benefit implications as a result of Staying Put Arrangements. Housing Benefit is, however, being replaced by Universal Credit. Individual advice will therefore need to be obtained.

6.5 Council Tax and Council Tax Benefit

The position regarding Council Tax will vary depending on the circumstances of the carers, the number of adults in the household and the activity that the young person is engaged in. Young people undertaking full time education are 'invisible' for council tax purposes.