Fostering
When you become a foster care, we'll pay you a weekly allowance, based on the child's age, to help cover the day-to-day costs of looking after a child, such as bills, food, clothes, travel, school dinners and pocket money.
Weekly payments
These are the minimum weekly rates for 2016/2017 equivalent to the national minimum standard recommended by the Department of Education.
| Child or young person's age | Allowance |
| Babies | £123 |
| Under fives | £126 |
| 5 - 10 years | £139 |
| 11 - 15 years | £159 |
| Over 16s | £185 |
Skills based payment scheme
We'll reward your development as a foster carer through our Payment for Skills Scheme which operates with six levels based on the knowledge, skills and experience that you bring to the fostering role.
Depending on the level of your fostering skills, you'll also receive an additional weekly payment, set out below. This is based both on your level of experience and skills. There will be a further age-related fee depending on the age and the needs of the child/children you care for.
| Skill | Rate |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | £50 |
| Level 2 | £100 |
| Level 3 | £150 |
| Level 4 | £250 |
| Level 5 | £360 |
| Level 6 | £360 * |
* (payable to carers at lower levels who care for children under specific schemes)
Additional allowances
We also pay special allowances to cover items such as clothing when a child first comes to live with you, educational school trips, and health and educational expenses, basic bedroom furniture and linen.
We'll help with your mileage payments for certain activities involving the children and their care.
if you need items such as buggies, car seats, fire guards and so on, you can borrow these from us.
