What this consultation is about
We have a statutory duty to protect children who are at risk of significant harm, and when risks are unmanageable within a home context take the necessary actions under the Children Act 1989 to remove a child from their parents’ care. In these instances, we will take all responsibility for the financial commitments of looking after a child.
In some instances, a family will agree to a child coming into our care and parents will continue to have 'parental responsibility' for their child under S20 of the Children Act 1989. For these cases, if there is an assessment that the parents are eligible, they can legally be asked to make a contribution to the costs of the care for their child up until the child's 16th birthday. To date, we have not undertaken any charging of parents under this legislation, however, given the financial constraints and the increasing costs of care provision this is being considered.
There are many exemptions for those parents that could be charged a contribution towards the costs of the care of their child, for example it would not be applied to those who are in receipt of benefits. Whilst the legislation states that from 16 a child could be charged for contributions to their care this is not something that we intend to pursue. We would also undertake a financial assessment before requesting contributions to ensure it would not jeopardise the family's income unreasonably and the expectations would be clearly communicated before reaching any decisions regarding accommodating children according to the risks and needs that have been identified by a social worker.
Based on the recent estimates of those families that would be eligible to be charged a contribution from the last 6 months of data, we expect between 14 and 28 families a year whose children enter care in these circumstances. Therefore, it is anticipated this will not have an impact on many families but may also encourage some families to work with their social worker to ensure they are making the most of all of the support available before considering requesting the accommodating of their child/children under Section 20 of the Children Act 1989.
The costs that can be requested must be reasonable and as such we intend to request a 50% contribution of the weekly fostering allowance rates which are reviewed annually. This would not necessarily reflect the full costs for the care of a child and based on the April 2024 rates the following would be applied.
Contribution of the weekly fostering allowance rates
| Age |
Weekly allowance |
50% contribution |
| 0 to 4 |
£179.20 |
£89.60 |
| 5 to 10 |
£198.57 |
£99.26 |
| 11 to 15 |
£226.69 |
£113.35 |
The purpose of this consultation is to seek views as to the implementation of this policy.