CAO Financial Support

[AnxiousAunt]

I've posted before about my nieces and nephews being involved in care proceedings.

The case ended 6 months ago and the outcome was that 4 of the children came to live with me.

The original care plan was for the two younger to be on SGOs and the two older ones to be long-term fostered. However during the course of the court hearing, the care plan changed to the older children being placed on CAOs instead of LTFC.

I am being paid an SGO allowance for the two younger children, this is guaranteed for two years, but the local authority have denied my request for there to be a payment made for the children on the CAO. They say that it is not an automatic payment and I am not entitled.

I feel this is unfair, first on the grounds I committed to taking on the four children on the understanding I would be financially supported for all of them. Secondly, I had no opportunity to seek legal advice on the care plan that was approved by court as it was different from the one I did receive legal advice on.

I had to give up my job when I took on the four children and I did so because I thought I would be fully financially supported, if only for 2 years. I am worried about how I will afford to look after 4 children long term.

Is the decision of the LA final or is this possible to appeal in some way? I had thought of putting in a complaint but is this the right way to go about it?

[Robin D]

Hi again.

Yes, put in a formal complaint. You should find the details on the local authority web-site. You can also speak to your local councillor and see if they will assist. Ditto your MP. They may bring about a quicker conclusion. Enlisting the support of either does not have any adverse effect on an on-going complaint.

There is also a detailed help section on making complaints at https://frg.org.uk/get-help-and-advice/what/complaints/.

Try to keep your complaint factual. In my experience, the local authority are likely to reject your complaint at stage 1, and possibly also at stage 2. but from what you say you had a reasonable expectation of payment based on information you had been given, so please do not accept their responses at stage 1 or 2 but insist on moving to stage 3. Even if this is rejected, you can, and in my opinion, should, take the matter to the Local Authority Ombudsman.

I take my hat off to you for taking on 4 children. It's never going to be easy, and the fact that the LA are not providing the support you need, is in my view, totally unacceptable. I wish you luck.

[AnxiousAunt]

Thank you very much for your advice and kind words.

I feel like the LA are taking advantage of the fact they are my family and I won't let them go. If I had known I would not be financially supported, I may have not left my job, but I was assured by the children's SW and my SSW that the finances would be "sorted out" regarding the CAOs.

[Robin D]

Glad to be of some help. I just wish all social workers would read these forums and realise how many kinship carers feel cheated. It cannot possibly be that every one of the carers on here misheard!

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

I've posted before about my nieces and nephews being involved in care proceedings.

The case ended 6 months ago and the outcome was that 4 of the children came to live with me.

The original care plan was for the two younger to be on SGOs and the two older ones to be long-term fostered. However during the course of the court hearing, the care plan changed to the older children being placed on CAOs instead of LTFC.

I am being paid an SGO allowance for the two younger children, this is guaranteed for two years, but the local authority have denied my request for there to be a payment made for the children on the CAO. They say that it is not an automatic payment and I am not entitled.

I feel this is unfair, first on the grounds I committed to taking on the four children on the understanding I would be financially supported for all of them. Secondly, I had no opportunity to seek legal advice on the care plan that was approved by court as it was different from the one I did receive legal advice on.

I had to give up my job when I took on the four children and I did so because I thought I would be fully financially supported, if only for 2 years. I am worried about how I will afford to look after 4 children long term.

Is the decision of the LA final or is this possible to appeal in some way? I had thought of putting in a complaint but is this the right way to go about it?

Dear AnxiousAunt

Thank you for posting again and updating regarding the outcome of the care proceedings.

I am sorry that you are feeling anxious about the financial implications of caring for your nieces and nephews. In your post if you say that you received legal advice in respect of the local authority’s care plan. I think that advice is usually in respect of the support package being offered where special guardianship is being considered. In any event, were you offered financial support under that plan for all the children to be in your care if there was no care order in place. If this is the case, then I believe you can challenge the local authority’s refusal to offer financial support under the children arrangement order.

It is not clear from our post why you agreed to a child arrangement order rather than long term foster care. Children’s services could not force you to accept a child arrangement order.

Regarding the special guardianship allowance you are being paid, do you know if the amount is at the minimum fostering allowance rate or less. Please see our template letter 9 if you are receiving less than minimum. Also, child benefit should not be deducted from your allowance. You are also concerned about the two-year cut off for payment, but it is possible for you to request that payment continues as children’s services should review the payment in line with the children’s needs.

Please read information HEREabout support for special guardians. You can read about how to check your local authority’s policy for kinship care in this LINK to our website.

You may also find it helpful to read this information about Child Arrangement Orders you will find specific information about financial support from page 8.

If you believe the children’s needs will not be met without financial support, you can request that children’s services carry out a financial assessment for a child arrangement allowance. If they disagree you can consider a formal complaint.


You can also ask for a child in need assessment. Here is information you may find helpful.


Children’s services should have given you information so that you could make an informed decision regarding the way in which you would be willing to care for all the children and it may be that you wish to make a complaint once you have read through the information included in this response. Unfortunately, children’s services often encourage family members to accept private law orders without them knowing the financial impact it will have on them.

Here is information about making a. complaint

Hope find this helpful. Should you wish to speak to an adviser you can telephone our free confidential advice line on 0808 801 0366. The advice line is open from 9.30am to 3.00pm Monday to Friday.

Best wishes

Suzie

[AnxiousAunt]

Hi Suzie,

Thank you very much for your response.
If I had known that I could refuse a CAO and retain the children as LTFC, that's what I would have chosen to do, I was never made aware that this was an option. I was not party to proceedings but it is my understanding that the children's cafcass guardian was not in agreement with the original plan put forth by children's services, so they were forced to make a new care plan during the hearing, and this second plan was what the judge went with, so I was never informed of the change of care plan until the orders were made.

This is very interesting regarding not deducting child benefit. I have referred to the template letter you linked. I am not in receipt of Income Support but am I right in thinking that if the deduction of child benefit takes me below the minimum fostering allowance, they should not be deducting it?
I am being paid the minimum amount, with child benefit deducted, so therefore less than the minimum.

Thanks once again for your help

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear AnxiousAunt

Thanks for your further post. I am sorry that there has been a delay in responding to you.

It is very unfortunate that you were not able to challenge the care plan for the children during the proceedings and that you were not made a party to the proceedings or legally represented. It seems that you were disempowered and that the orders including Child Arrangements Orders (CAOs) for two of the children were made without your knowledge or having an opportunity to make the case for the children to remain in your care, in a long-term fostering arrangement, under a Care Order.

I have referred to the complaints process in a previous response. You cannot complain about the orders made, as they were made by the court. However, you can complain about the process e.g. if the local authority did not keep you properly informed or did not encourage or support you to get legal advice when there was a change to the proposed care plan.

In relation to the children you are caring for under CAOs then I would strongly reiterate my previous advice that you insist you are assessed for a discretionary CAO allowance, as the children were formerly Looked After. You have explained in previous posts that you were their kinship foster carer when they were under interim care orders. Therefore, the making of the CAO and SGO orders ended their looked after status. You can also request that any allowance should be backdated to the date the order was made. You can ask children’s services to provide you with a copy of their written policy on when child arrangements order allowances are paid in that local authority area. The allowance is means-tested and discretionary so they can but don’t have to pay. But you can persist with challenging this.

In relation to the SGO allowance that you are being paid for two of the children, you state previously that this is guaranteed for two years. From your early posts, my understanding is that the orders were made about 8 months ago. However, you also state that child benefit is already being deducted. SGO allowances are means-tested and discretionary however the following exception applies:

Children’s services do not have to consider someone’s financial situation before providing financial help where they are considering including an additional reward element that the special guardian previously received as part of a previous fostering allowance (for up to two years or longer in exceptional circumstances). So you may wish to clarify with children’s services that they are applying this to your situation and therefore you can challenge the current deduction of child benefit. Please see a link to the regulations (regulation 7, Special Guardianship Regulations 2005) here.

You may wish to incorporate all of the issues into a formal complaint, as discussed previously or to address them separately.

I hope this is helpful.

If you would like to discuss your situation with an adviser please call our freephone advice line on 0808 8010366, Mon to Fri, 9.30 am to 3.00 pm (except bank holidays). Or post again on this forum.

Best wishes

Suzie

[AnxiousAunt]

Hi Suzy, thanks for your further reply. I wrote to my old supervising social worker and let them know I was intending on making a complaint unless they looked again at my financial support.
The good news is that I am being recommended to get an allowance equivalent to the SGO allowance for the CAO as the LA realises that I have been disadvantaged in the way the orders came about, so this is going through the process and it will hopefully be backdated to August when the orders were made.
In terms of the SGO child benefit, I will not be eligible to not have the child benefit not deducted, as even though I was a foster carer, I was never paid a fee element because my LA separates this off and kinship carers do not receive it. But it is not so much of a worry if I will get a CAO allowance.

Thanks again for your help