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0103 2025/26
18/05/2026
Children and Young People
All wards
Uplift of Foster Carer Payments
To uplift the payments made to foster carers in line with government recommendations and to extend the current 'offer' to mainstream foster carers to provide all newly approved level one foster carers with a guaranteed of payment for the first year of fostering.
To ensure that the Local Authority continues to recruit and retain foster carers to meet the needs of children and young people within the Borough. To offer our children and young people the opportunity to be cared for within a Local Authority fostering household during those periods when they cannot remain at home.
The recruitment and retention of foster carers is central to our Sufficiency Strategy which aims to offer all those children and young people who cannot remain at home and require accommodating on a short or long-term basis the opportunity to live within a Fostering Household. A key part of our offer to foster carers is the financial support which they will be provided with comprising of two components, an fee for the foster carer/s and an allowance for the child placed with them both of which are paid on an age related basis. Central government sets out annually its expectations of local authority's in terms of the national minimum allowances (NMA) made to foster carers, the most recent correspondence dated the 22 January 2025, and provided, 'the Fostering Services: National Minimum Standards, issued under the Care Standards Act 2000, set expectations for foster carers and their service providers. This includes the expectation that foster carers should not be financially disadvantaged because of their fostering role. We expect all foster carers to receive at least the weekly NMA, in addition to agree expenses to cover full costs of caring for each child placed with them (standard 28) The NMA is routinely uplifted annually, considering changes in inflation and affordability of local government. I am writing to inform you that we have uplifted the NMA for the financial year by 3.55%.' Please see the letter and table attached in the supporting documents. This financial year will see a drop in the number of foster carers recruited and whilst this reflects regional and national trends it has a significant impact on potential outcomes for our children and young people who are are at risk of being placed outside of the borough with Independent Fostering Agency's or in Children's Homes. Use of these two alternative placement types places an increased pressure on the overall budget for the Department which is currently overspent.
The recommendation is option 2. In selecting this option the expectations of the government are met and exceeded providing an allowance which is likely to meet the requirement to be set for 2026/7. In selecting this option the local authority would be well placed to recruit foster carers and whilst not paying the highest rate of allowances it would compare well to other local authorities currently. In doing so the local authority is at a reduced risk of loosing its foster carers to those fostering agencies which are independently run and offers those individuals/family's who are considering fostering to do so without risking their own financial security.
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Please contact Fiona Woods on 01744 676410
