Hampshire County Council

Executive Member, Social Care Item

21^st June 2002

Fees and Allowances payable to foster carers, family link carers and adopters in 2002/3

Report of the Director of Social Services

Hampshire County Council

Executive Member, Social Care Item

21^st June 2002

Fees and allowances payable to foster carers, family link carers and adopters in 2002/3

Report of the Director of Social Services

1.

Adoption/Residence/Custodianship Allowances

Hampshire continues to achieve permanence for children by placing them in families who offer legal security. Many of these are supported by way of a weekly allowance which, if agreed in principle, the child may become eligible for, or may cease to be eligible for, at any time between the date the child is placed and the child's 16^th or 18^th birthday. These allowances are subject to annual review, to ensure that children's security is not endangered by a change in financial circumstance of their new family.

It is recommended that this allowance is increased by 2.5% with effect from 1/10/02, thus reinforcing the commitment of Hampshire County Council to achieving permanence for as many children as possible.

2.

Skill Fees/Project Care Fees

All foster carers were assessed in 1999 against a series of competencies and placed at the appropriate skill level; training and learning opportunities being made available to help them increase their skills, thus moving up the skill levels and having their skills recognised by a fee, payable each week that a child is in placement.

The skill fee payable for level 2 carers is £40 and for level 3 carers is £60. It is recommended that these increase to £55 and £75 respectively. This increase forms a key part of the continued implementation of the recruitment and retention strategy for Hampshire's foster carer service.

In 2001/2 15 foster carers progressed from skill level 1 to skill level 2 and 18 foster carers progressed from skill level 2 to skill level 3. An additional 18 foster carers have progressed to a higher skill level since April 2002 and an increase in this payment will be significant in recognising the level of skills of our foster carers.

In October 2002 the project care scheme, which has gradually been phasing out over the last eighteen months, will cease. Most foster carers will transfer to the skill fee scheme.

Savings made from the project care scheme will be recycled into the budget which supports allowances payable in respect of children, thus enabling children's placements not to be jeopardised by the transfer of foster carers from project care.

The skill fee budget will support those additional foster carers joining the scheme.

Finally, family link carers, who offer regular breaks to children with disabilities, and respite to full-time carers, will be given the opportunity during 2002/3 to join the skill fee scheme, in recognition of the complexity of the task they carry out and the vital role they play in supporting children with disabilities and their families.

Again the budget allocation has been revised this year to enable those family link carers to join the scheme.

This funding derives from the government's Quality Protects Programme and is being used to enable us to meet our targets of increasing the percentage of children who are able to experience family life, to become securely attached to a primary carer, and of increasing the chances of children with disabilities to experience family life.

3.

Family Link/Respite Care

Family link carers are paid a different allowance rate to mainstream foster carers, stemming from a time when they might care for a child for a few hours during the day (for which they receive an hourly allowance) rather than the overnight/weekend and sometimes full week care which many of our family link carers now offer.

As regulations have changed it has been recognised that family link carers are carrying out a fostering task and should be paid allowances in line with those paid to foster carers, in addition to being given the opportunity to join the skill fee scheme, as outlined earlier.

Consultation is due to take place during this year about the best way to achieve these changes.

In the meantime, it is recommended that the current allowance payable to family link carers be increased by 2.5% with effect from 1/10/02 in line with other increases. The cost of this will be met from this year's budget allocation.

4.

Fostering Allowances

In January 2002 foster care allowances in Hampshire were changed to become a more unified system, replacing the previous scheme which required foster carers to claim separately for additional items or expenses.

Hampshire County Council took this opportunity to move closer to the national recommended rate for foster care allowances.

This has led to much greater consistency for foster carers and therefore for the children in their care. In addition, it has enabled the processing of allowances to become much more efficient, leading to fewer delays and ironing out disparities from one part of the county to another.

In July, foster carers payments will transfer from the long-outdated BOA payments system to the new County Council SAP system, which will mean that the payment of allowances and fees will need to be made directly into bank or building society accounts.

It is anticipated that family link carers will also be able to transfer to this system soon.

Whilst everything possible has been done to ensure that the transfer to the new system runs smoothly, August and September are the months in which any unforeseen errors will need to be corrected.

It is recommended, therefore, that increases to the current allowance rate take effect from 1/10/02, so as to achieve a smooth introduction.

The Fostering Network have recommended that the cost of caring for children in the 0-4 age group has risen more sharply in recent years than the cost of caring for children in the other age groups. In recognition of this, it is proposed to increase allowances for children aged between 5 and 18 years by 2.5% and for the allowance for children in the 0-4 age group to be increased by £6.06.

Current rate to carers Proposed rate from 1/10/02

0-4 years 83.94 90.00

5-10 years 103.76 106.35

11-15 years 129.09 132.32

16+ years 167.20 171.38

5.

A 2.5% increase is in line with all other recommended increases on all the schemes.

The cost to the County Council, if the new rates were introduced on 1^st October 2002, would be £55,000 in the current financial year.

6.

Recommendation:

That the allowances be increased with effect from 1/10/02 by 2.5% across the board with greater increase for children under the age of four years.