Money Matters and Insurance

Enhanced Competency payments is the recognition of the exceptional additional skills, support and tasks required of foster carers who care for children and young people. An enhancement might be provided in respect of children of any age with severe diagnoses of physical disability or learning difficulties, severe emotional and behavioural problems or a combination of these which will require ongoing care and attention over and above that required by the average child looked after. This will only be considered if the criteria for this is met:

• Children with exceptionally high levels of verbal and or physically aggressive behaviour or the behaviours are such that it would be hard to identify an alternative in house provision if required;
• Children who have a history of going regularly "missing from care" and who continue to place themselves at risk;
• Children at risk of sexual exploitation who require a 24/7 level of monitoring and support from the foster carer; Children involved in serious and persistent offending behaviour and who have been remanded into local authority care by the youth court;
• The home environment is impacted on adversely by the presentation of the child/young person, i.e. only child that can be placed, soiling, carer having to give up work;
• The carer is offering a specialised level of care and support utilising specialist skills, developed through specific training and knowledge;
• The carer has to undergo specific training or guidance to maintain care of the child or young person and;
• The carer regularly incurs expenditure above what would be expected to be managed within the usual fostering allowances in order to meet the needs of the child.

The Fostering or Competence Fee is a payment to the foster carer and is determined by the level of the carer's skills and training. Please note that the Fostering Fee forms part of your income: it must be declared in your returns to the Inland Revenue.

A £300 annual payment will be made to Foster Carers per child who take children on holiday with them. Our carers are expected to provide a loving home to our children and are expected to include fostered children and young people in their own holiday arrangements.

A discretionary setting up allowance of up to £650 is available to new foster carers to purchase items such as bedroom furnishings for the Looked after Child. A request must come through the Supervising Social Worker who will assess what is required. The Fostering Service will not generally bear the cost of decoration or carpets. The setting up allowance can also be used to purchase Health and Safety Equipment i.e. fire blanket, fire extinguishers and first aid box. Carers are expected to take good care of bedroom furnishings and equipment purchased for the fostering task and replace them from the fostering allowances as they would ordinarily budget for wear and tear. In a situation where a child in placement has damaged equipment or property, in the first instance the carers will need to contact their insurance company. If the damage is not covered by their insurance the foster carer is required to complete a claim form, attaching all necessary evidence e.g. proforma invoice, number of repair quotes for comparison and this should be sent to their SSW. The Fostering Team Manager will produce a report and submit to the Fostering and Permanence Service Manager for consideration for an exceptional payment to be made by the Local Authority. No additional expenditure should be incurred by the foster carer in advance of this authorisation.

At the start of a placement, up to £100 to allow the purchase of items such as clothes and equipment.

This is usually paid only if a child or young person changes school because of a change of placement.

Foster Carers should contact the virtual school if your young person requires a device to support their learning.

To support young people, gain access to the internet, we will provide carers with £15 a month to support the costs of home internet. The internet payments will be made so long as you have a child in placement.

Emergency carers will be paid an additional amount of £200 each time an emergency placement is made between the hours of 5pm and 9am or otherwise out of office hours, in recognition of the additional disruption to the household. Those carers on the Emergency Foster Carer scheme (EFCS) will also receive a £100 retainer Payment for being on the EFCS rota as long as no emergency placement is refused.

Foster carers who have been requested to take a placement out of hours and have been asked to make preparations for that placement but for some reason the child or young person is not subsequently placed with them, will be recompensed on a proportionate basis for their time and trouble. For example, if a carer is called out of hours by EDT and asked to be on standby to take a placement but a child is then placed with a family member, a payment of £80.00 will be made.

Foster carers who are identified as a match for a particular placement, but this placement is to be a planned moved (not taking place within a week of being identified), will be offered a retainer (for a maximum of two weeks) until the child or young person arrives. This will be at 50% of the basic fostering fee level for the child or young person to placed. See also section 3.11 regarding discretionary payments.

When Lambeth (or the Regional Adoption Agency to which Lambeth belongs) approves the adoption by a foster carer of a child or young person who was placed with that carer by Lambeth, the Council will pay the foster carer's legal expenses for the adoption. Thereafter, the carer will continue to receive the Fostering Fee and the Child's Fostering Allowance for 2 years. At the end of this transitional period, the adoptive carer will receive support on the basis of an assessment of the child's or young person's needs in case there is a significant change in their circumstances. The option of continuation of fostering fees for foster carers who adopt a child in their care will be considered to include the allowance as well as the fee element of fostering payments. This is something that can be agreed and outlined in the Adoption Support Plan for the child and the financial support can continue until the child becomes 18 years old.

A Special Guardianship Order (SGO) is an order of the court under the Children Act 1989 which grants the holder(s) parental responsibility over a child until they reach the age of 18. This enables the special guardian(s) to make day-to-day decisions on behalf of the child, for example in relation to their education. Special Guardianship orders (SGO's) were introduced as an amendment to the Children Act 1989 by the Adoption & Children Act 2002, implemented on the 30 December 2005, and amended in 2016. SGO is a legal order intended to meet the needs of children separated from their birth parents which would offer more security to the children and their carers than provided by long-term fostering – but without severing all legal ties with their birth parents, as is the case with Adoption. Anyone with whom the child has been living for 12 months or more can apply to the Court for a Special Guardianship Order. This can include foster carers, grandparents, or family and friends foster carers.

Regulation 7 (C.A 1989 S.G Regulations 2005) makes specific provision in regard to financial provision for special guardians who were formerly foster carers for the specific child or young person. The general principle underpinning the regulations is that financial support should not include any element of remuneration, but former foster carers are exempted from this for a period of up to two years. In such circumstances the payment element could continue beyond 2 years (Reg 7 (2). This regulation therefore gives a local authority discretion to maintain payments to foster carers who become special guardians; these can include the allowance as well as the fee element of such fostering payments. This is something that can be agreed and outlined in the Special Guardianship Support plan for the child and the financial support can continue until the child becomes 18 years old.

All registered foster carers are advised to take out appropriate home and household insurance, to cover any loss or damage to property or possessions. You must also inform your home and car insurers that you are a foster carer, and check that the terms and conditions of the policy are adequate to cover any incidents which may arise because you are fostering. The Fostering Network can give information about insurance companies that offer specialist cover for foster carer.

Thereafter, if loss or damage occurs that was caused by a foster child or young person, you should first make a claim on your own insurance. If your claim is not accepted by your insurers, you may in certain circumstances be entitled to make a claim against Lambeth's insurance policy. If this claim fails also, Lambeth may in some circumstances agree to make a discretionary payment. It is vital that you act quickly and meet the obligations imposed by insurers. You may also be required to submit two formal estimates for repairs or replacements.

All being well, your insurance company will accept your claim and make a payment. If, however, the premium is subsequently increased because you made the claim, then the Fostering Service will pay the extra amount of the premium cost for a period of three years.

Carers are normally expected to pay for any day trips arranged by the school, drawing on the Child's Fostering Allowance. Any proposals for longer trips or holidays should be discussed in advance with the child's social worker and your SSW, who will assess whether a given trip is in the child's or young person's best interests. If it is, it may be possible to share the costs with the school (for example, by making use of the Pupil Premium).

A payment of £500.00 (to be reviewed in 2025/26) will be made to any Lambeth foster carer that refers a prospective foster carer to us who then goes onto become a fully approved Lambeth foster carer. This payment will be made at the point that become an approved foster carer for Lambeth.

Lambeth Council will only provide a discount towards total amount payable after any other discounts or and council tax reduction support has been applied, our policy can be found in the Lambeth Fostering Policies and Guidance section. This total reflects the balance that foster carers are liable to pay.

Foster carers that are eligible for 100% discount against their annual council tax bill are:

• Lambeth in house foster carers who reside in Lambeth and are actively fostering a child or young person for Lambeth Council;
• Lambeth in house foster carers who reside in Lambeth and are actively providing respite care for a child or young person for Lambeth Council;
• Lambeth in house foster carers who reside in Lambeth and are actively providing a Staying Put placement to young person.

There's a fixed tax exemption of up to £10,000 per year (less if for a shorter period) which is shared equally among any foster carers in the same household. This means you don't have to pay tax on the first £10,000 income you make from fostering.

What is Qualifying Care Relief?

Foster parents receive a specialist tax relief called Qualifying Care Relief. This is split into the following two parts:

1. Annual amount;
   A tax allowance that's deducted from the annual income from fostering. This is a fixed amount that every foster parent receives as tax relief;
2. Additional weekly amount;
   A weekly component that provides an additional amount of tax relief for every week a child is in a foster parent’s care. This is available for each child and the amount received will depend on whether the child is under or over 11 years old.

The QCR replaced the old system where foster parents would have to keep track of all expenses and receipts relating to the care of their child, and submit them as part of their annual tax return.

What are the new rates of tax relief for foster parents?

The increased Qualifying Care Relief provides the following tax relief for foster parents:

• A fixed amount of £18,140 for the tax year, plus;
• Weekly amounts for each child in your care:
• £375 for each child under 11 years of age;
• £450 for each child 11 years of age or older.

All payments made to you will be itemised. You should keep this information as a record for income tax purposes.

Please see: Foster Carers Relief Information (HMRC).