Foster Care Allowances and Payments

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Dear Kent County Council,

1) Please could you tell me your 2017-18 weekly foster care allowances for all age bands, NOT including any fee/reward element for foster carers.

2) Please detail your current fee/reward structure for foster carers (NB this is different to allowances for the child). Please include:
i) Details of the levels/bands for carers and how much you pay per week at each level/band.
ii) The number of foster carers on each level/band, including those that receive no fee on top of the child’s allowance.

3) Please could you tell me your weekly allowances to former foster carers looking after young people in Staying Put 18+ arrangements, broken down by year 1, year 2, and year 3+ if necessary.

4) Please detail your current fee/reward structure for former foster carers looking after young people in Staying Put arrangements. Please include:
i) Details of the levels/bands and how much you pay per week at each level/band.
ii) The number of former foster carers on each level/band, including those that receive no fee on top of the child’s allowance.

Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Robert Cann

Kent County Council

Dear Mr Cann

Thank you for your email below.

Kent County Council acknowledges your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Assuming KCC holds this information, we will endeavour to supply the data to you as soon as possible but no later than 8th August 2017 (20 working days from date of receipt).

We will advise you as soon as possible if we do not hold this information or if there are exemptions to be considered and/or any costs for providing the information. Please quote our reference - FOI/17/1203 - in any communication regarding this particular request.

Best regards

Caroline Dodge | Team Leader | Information Resilience & Transparency Team | Kent County Council | Room 2.71, Sessions House, Maidstone, ME14 1XQ | Phone 03000 416033 | Fax 03000 420303 | http://www.kent.gov.uk/about-the-council... |

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Kent County Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Cann

 

Thank you for your request for information made under the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) 2000, relating to Foster Care Allowances and
Payments

 

I am pleased to provide the response below:

 

1) Please could you tell me your 2017-18 weekly foster care allowances for
all age bands, NOT including any fee/reward element for foster carers.

Please see the attached document.

 

2) Please detail your current fee/reward structure for foster carers (NB
this is different to allowances for the child). Please include:

 

i) Details of the levels/bands for carers and how much you pay per week at
each level/band.

Please see the attached document.

 

ii) The number of foster carers on each level/band, including those that
receive no fee on top of the child’s allowance.

Carer Level Number of Carer Households
Level 1 626
Level 2 104
Level 3 23

 

Figures as at 30/06/2017 and excludes Relief Carers.

 

3) Please could you tell me your weekly allowances to former foster carers
looking after young people in Staying Put 18+ arrangements, broken down by
year 1, year 2, and year 3+ if necessary.

 

Standard: £140 per week.

 

Complex: £190 per week.

 

Intensive: £240 per week.

 

This does not include any payment for rent. Young people are expected to
contribute towards rent or claim Housing benefit where appropriate.

 

Funding

 

Young people studying “A” levels or equivalent programme of study

Where a young person is studying for their “A” levels or an equivalent
full time educational course during their 18^th year, in order that they
do not face disruption in placement the full fostering payment will be
granted from their 18^th birthday until the end of the exam period in June
of that academic year.

Staying Put for the period between the end of A Level exams and start of
university (where applicable) will revert to the standard Staying Put
funding structure and foster carers are not eligible for the fostering
rate.

Young People aged 18 who end their period of study whilst Foster carers
are in receipt of the full fostering payment

Where a young person decides not to complete their course of education (A’
Level or equivalent) the full fostering payment will cease and there will
be an assessment of the young person’s needs by their social worker, to
determine the fee payable to the Staying Put provider. (Standard, complex
or intensive.)

All carers receiving a Staying Put payment have a duty to inform the local
authority of any changes in circumstances.

 

4) Please detail your current fee/reward structure for former foster
carers looking after young people in Staying Put arrangements. Please
include:

 

i) Details of the levels/bands and how much you pay per week at each
level/band.

 

ii) The number of former foster carers on each level/band, including those
that receive no fee on top of the child’s allowance.

 

i) Please see the above response to Q2.

 

ii) Current Staying Put placements are as follows:

Standard: 58

Complex: 9

Intensive: 6

If you are unhappy with this response, and believe KCC has not complied
with legislation, please ask for a review by following our complaints
process; details can be found at this link
[1]http://www.kent.gov.uk/about-the-council...
on our website. Please quote reference FOI/17/1203.

If you still remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you can
appeal to the Information Commissioner, who oversees compliance with the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Details of what you need to do, should
you wish to pursue this course of action, are available from the
Information Commissioner’s website [2]http://www.ico.org.uk/concerns.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Alex Corcoran | Information Access Officer | Information Resilience &
Transparency Team | Kent County Council | Room 2.71, Sessions House,
Maidstone, ME14 1XQ | Phone 03000 419707 | Fax 03000 420303 |
[3]http://www.kent.gov.uk/about-the-council...
|

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