Finances

Foster care finance can be confusing for everyone involved in fostering. We have been at the forefront of foster care finance for over thirty-five years and produce a wide range of resources and productions to help you support foster carers with financial issues including our Signpost booklets on benefits, insurance and tax and national insurance.

Our work on foster care finance doesn't end with our publications. Our recommended minimum allowances have been the benchmark for fostering allowances since 1975 and one of the three main issues in our Together for Change campaign is the low levels of pay for foster carers in the UK.

The governments in England and Wales set National Minimum Allowances, Northern Ireland use the rates set in England and in Scotland, guidance states that fostering services should be aware of our recommended minimum allowances when setting allowances.

We provide a range of resources and publications to help fostering services make sense of foster care finance. Staff at organisations that are members of the Fostering Network should log in to access exclusive members-only resources.

View our resources on Finances

Publications

Insurance and foster care (2009)

What happens if a fostered child causes damage in your home? Can you afford the legal costs in the event of a court action arising from your fostering activity? This Signpost booklet offers helpful guidance on many aspects of insurance.

Order Insurance and foster care online

Download the Insurance signpost

Reports

About the Fostering Network's recommended minimum allowances (2007)

An introduction to the minimum allowances giving background on how they are calculated.

Download About the Fostering Network's recommended minimum allowances
Can't afford to foster (2007)

The is the full report of the Can't Afford to Foster campaign which undertook a survey of fee payments to foster carers in the UK. It recommends that foster carers are paid the equivalent of others in the children's workforce and that these payments be year round in order to keep carers fostering.

Download Can't afford to foster
Fees for foster carers (2004)

Part of the Fostering Network's Manifesto for Change, this discussion paper looks at the issue of fees for foster carers.

Download Fees for foster carers
Love fostering - need pay (2010)

This report gives the results of the Fostering Network's 2009 pay survey of foster carers.

Download Love fostering - need pay
Lower spending, poorer service (2012)

This report looks at the extent of budget cuts to fostering services after the election of the coalition government in 2010, and the potential and real impact on foster families.

Download Lower Spending, Poorer Service
National minimum maintenance allowances for foster carers 2011-2014 (Wales) (2011)

This Welsh Assembly Government circular gives more information about the national minimum allowances for foster carers in Wales which come into force on 1 April 2011 and sets the rates for the next three years.

Download National minimum maintenance allowances for foster carers 2011-2014 (Wales)
The cost of foster care (2005)

Jointly published by The Fostering Network and the British Association of Adoption and Fostering (BAAF), The Cost of Foster Care assesses the spending required in order to give children in public care the same opportunities to have a successful future as other children in our society.

The report can be viewed free of charge online. Alternatively you can purchase printed copies by contacting our publications department on 020 7620 6445 or publications@fostering.net.

Download The cost of foster care
Update to the Cost of Foster Care report (2010)

Undertaken by Lisa Holmes and Jean Soper of the Centre for Child and Family Research, Loughborough University and released in June 2010, this report aims to produce a supplement to The Cost of Foster Care, updating the estimates of the investment needed to provide a properly resourced foster care service throughout the United Kingdom.

The calculations of costs and investment needed have been revised to take account of new information and changes in monetary values.

Download Update to the Cost of Foster Care report
Update to the Cost of Foster Care: briefing (2010)

This briefing considers the findings of the Update to the Cost of Foster Care report.

The full report can be found at www.fostering.net/all-about-fostering/resources/reports/update-cost-fost...

Download Update to the Cost of Foster Care: briefing

The Fostering Network's position

Briefing on supported lodgings for vulnerable young people aged 16-24 (2011)

This briefing describes what Supported Lodgings are and their history; it highlights the anomalies in tax and benefits policies which need to be addressed in order to ensure that Supported Lodgings are provided in sufficient numbers to meet the needs of young people in and leaving care.

Its purpose is to call on Government to create a financial climate which supports the provision of supported lodgings for care leavers and homeless young people by increasing the disregard of income to Supported Lodgings hosts/carers for the calculation of tax and welfare benefits.

Download the full Briefing on supported lodgings for vulnerable young people aged 16-24
Briefing on the spending review 2010 (2010)

According to the 2010 Government Spending Review, £81 billion of savings are to be found from public expenditure between 2011 and 2014-15. This is the Fostering Network's briefing on the spending review, highlighting the need to protect budgets for children in care.

Download Briefing on the spending review 2010
Housing benefit and foster care briefing (2011)

This briefing looks at the issues affecting foster carers when they apply for or receive housing benefit and the likely effects of the Government's proposed changes.

Download Housing benefit and foster care briefing
Pay: policy and recommendations (2009)

This paper is one in a series of four under the Together for Change campaign and focuses on the need for foster carers to be paid.

Foster carers are the only members of the children’s workforce with responsibility for looking after a child who is not their own 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year with little or no respite.

Download Pay: policy and recommendations
Pay: summary of issues (2009)

Fostering has traditionally been viewed as an extension of parenting, undertaken by those with the time and space to look after someone else’s children on a largely voluntary basis.

Today, many households rely on two incomes, reducing the pool of those willing and able to look after children on an entirely voluntary basis. At the same time, the needs of many of the children who come into foster care have increased dramatically, requiring a more skilled approach from those who look after them.

Download Pay: summary of issues

Share this:

Finances

View our resources on Finances

Further reading

Publications

Reports

The Fostering Network's position

Guidance for fostering providers

About us

Media