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End postcode lottery for children in care

Issued: 16 February 04

TEN TOP child care organisations are today (16 February) calling on the Government to end the financial postcode lottery for children in public care and those who care for them.

Under current arrangements, the financial support offered to children and young people in and leaving care differs from area to area. More than half of English local authorities give foster carers less than the minimum allowances needed to cover the cost of looking after children, with the result that carers are out of pocket and effectively subsidising the state. Leaving care grants – designed to help young people make the transition from the care system to adulthood – vary enormously, giving some care leavers a better start to independent living than others.

In a letter sent to children’s minister Margaret Hodge today, the organisations said: “It is an unjust and unsustainable situation to have 148 local authorities across England paying foster carers widely differing amounts of money to care for children with similar needs, and treating young people so differently when they come to leave public care. Children and young people should be valued the same whatever their address.

“It’s time for the Government to end this postcode lottery once and for all, and to implement a system of national allowances for fostered children and a national minimum leaving care grant.”

The letter was signed by representatives of the Fostering Network, A National Voice, the Who Cares? Trust, BAAF Adoption & Fostering, NCH, Barnardo’s, ChildLine, Voice for the Child in Care, CROA and the Children’s Rights Alliance for England.

The Fostering Network’s recommended minimum allowances for foster care are widely recognised as the benchmark for expenses incurred as the result of fostering, and start at around £100 per week. A survey of 106 English local authorities (72 per cent) between March and August 2003 found that 53 per cent gave foster carers less than these minimum rates, with some receiving as little as £50 per week.

Research by A National Voice resulted in a recommended minimum leaving care grant of £2000, plus London weighting, to cover the costs of setting up a home. One care leaver who participated in the project explained that he barely had enough money to buy basic furniture, and felt discriminated against when he discovered that young people in a neighbouring authority received twice as much.

There are over 60,000 children and young people in the care system on any given day in England, 41,000 of whom live with 32,000 foster families.

Ends

Contact:

Lucy Handford, Media Assistant, 020 7593 2054

Note

1. The British Association for Adoption & Fostering (BAAF) is the UK's leading adoption and fostering charity.