Foster Care

(asked on 29th January 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps are being taken to improve consistency in foster care payments by area.


Answered by
Nadhim Zahawi Portrait
Nadhim Zahawi
This question was answered on 6th February 2018

The National Minimum Standards for fostering services (NMS) are clear that every foster parent should receive an allowance that covers the full cost of caring for a child. The government recommends a minimum allowance that fostering service providers should pay to their foster parents each week to cover the costs involved in looking after a child or young person. It is set out as a benchmark standard in the NMS and offers some consistency in the allowances paid by local authorities.

Whilst it is for local authorities to decide the rate paid to foster parents in their area, our strong expectation is that foster parents with a child in placement will be paid at least the national minimum allowance. We know a number of fostering service providers already base their fostering allowances on rates that are higher than those recommended by the government.

The National Fostering Stocktake, an independent review of the fostering system in England, has now concluded. The department will carefully consider any recommendations made by the review and the Education Select Committee on payments to foster parents. The government response will be published in spring 2018.


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