Family and a friends Carer

[K***]

Hi, just looking for some advice please.
Last year myself and my Husband fostered a friends child for 2 months. The child was removed under Section 20. The Social Worker approached us, made sure our house was suitable and we had a CRB check done on us. She brought the child to our house with his belongings and this was the last time we seen her. During the time the child was with us for, we did not receive any financial help at all despite us trying to arrange it. I have since put a complaint in to the local authority and despite this, they are claiming we were not registered foster carers as he was with us for under 16 weeks and we were a ‘family and friends placement’ with only prelimary checks done. They have offered £50 per week for the time the child was with us for as a ‘good will gesture’ but from what I’ve read we should of received financial assistance in the form of a fostering allowance which was £136 per week stated on the local authorities policies and procedures. Am I right or should I accept their offer of £50 per week?

[Kingfish]

Hi Kimmie,

When we first had my wife’s niece under section 20 we only received £50 per week as we were told it was essentially a family arrangement, the local authority did pay childcare (before and after school) for us also. We were also entitled to claim benefits for the child in this period also

It wasn’t until we went through and were approved through a fostering panel that we started to receive fostering rates and no benefits could be claimed.

Hope this helps,

K.

[K***]

Thank you for the reply.
From my understanding under Section 20, if a Social worker comes to you and asks you to care for the child, they make you a foster carer? We didn’t claim any benefits nor did we receive any financial support at all from the local authority. His parents are friends not family.

K.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear K***

Welcome to the Family and Friends Carers discussion forum. My name is Suzie, online adviser at Family Rights Group.

I am sorry about the difficulties you are having with children's services at the moment after they placed a child in your care.

They placed a child with you, you are a foster carer and it does not matter whether only preliminary checks have been completed or not. From the moment the child was placed you became a foster carer. Please see our advice sheets about family and friends carers becoming foster carers and the support that they should receive from children's services.

I hope you will get all the information you need from the advice sheets but if you need more advice, please post again or, alternatively, you can telephone our advice line on 0808 801 0366 to speak to an adviser. Our advice line is open from 9.30am to 3pm Monday to Friday.

I hope this is helpful.

Best wishes

Suzie