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Fostering

Here are some suggested organisations that offer expert advice on fostering.

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Original poster

Difference between LA and IFA payments?

12 replies

shaz298 · 02/09/2010 13:13

Hi,

I posted another thread about considering fostering. I was definitely going to go with one of the better known IFas but after reading here I am thinking hard about this.

I have details of what the paymenys would be via the IFA but can't find anything about LA payments. is there a big difference? I.m in Scotland BTW

Thanks

Sharon x

OP posts:

sumum · 02/09/2010 14:04

Pyments differ from one la to another. your own la should tell you - if its not on their website just give them a call.

Here we only get paid when we have placements and payments are around £120 for primary aged child plus a carers fee of £40 to £165 depending on experience/childs needs.
This is weekly for each child in placement.

HTH.

Original poster

shaz298 · 02/09/2010 14:17

Wow that is MUCH lower than with the IFA!!

That is shocking!

Sharon x

OP posts:

sumum · 02/09/2010 14:23

Yes there is a big diffence but with la you are much more likely to have consistant placements and younger ones which I think I read you wanted? Also it fits in well with my family, I have a birth child with sn and 2 grown up girls and having youngish kids suits us better.

For all the money in the world I could not foster some of the teenagers who come with such a lot of needs that are placed in ifa placements.

The local authority will always place with there own carers first so if you have extra skills (as it sounds like you do) then you will have first pick of placements.

dolphin13 · 02/09/2010 21:27

sumum is right shazz, we have been fostering with LA for 6 years now. We take 3 children at a time and have only had spaces for about 4 weeks in that time.
Our LA pays between £122 and £176 depending on age for the child's allowance and then up to £287 per child depending on the fc skills. This is a weekly payment and I don't think that is much less than the IFAs in this area.

angel31dust · 02/09/2010 21:54

Hi although ifas pay about double to their foster carers. There is a very good reason for this. They rarely have children under 10 years old to place and they come with all kinds of problems. If you have a young family you should think hard on the impact on them taking on such children. I am also aware that placements can be few and far between and you don't get paid in between. The ifas advise that you should not rely on that income as it is so sporadic. I have been torn between the two myself but after being on here and getting advise and talking to la and ifa our minds are definately set on la now. We feel that the la will have our young ones best interest at heart. Hope this helps in some way. Good luck which ever way you choose it's not easy is it.

SquidgyBrain · 05/09/2010 19:39

Sharon, we are with a scottish LA, and our fee per year is £8,000 for one child not offering respite which works out £154 per week wither we have a placement or not, and for a child 0-2 the allowance is £126 per week

this is at level one - the fee goes up once you have been with the LA for a while, and you have completed further training (£11000 for level 2 and 18000 for level 3) Our link worker has said that we should be at level 2 after 2 years or so, also if you take respite placements you get an additional £2,000 per year.

Remembering that it is tax free I personally think our LA is rather generous :S

sumum · 05/09/2010 21:53

wow i'm moving to scotland !!!
My area is oviously paying very low amounts.

sumum · 05/09/2010 21:55

very interesting thread, our highest fee of £165 is very rarely paid, most carers get the £80 per child.

Any more well paid la out there??

SquidgyBrain · 05/09/2010 22:35

our LA was really struggling to get carers, there are only about 48 placements available in our county so they decided to up their allowances and fees - up until June this year the fee was £84.16 per week and that was halved if you didn't have a placement, and then the 0-4 allowance was £71.71 a week

they upped the allowances, in the hope that they could get people that are in part time work to give up work and foster - this apparently has been successful.

I am glad that we didn't know that the allowances would be so generous, in fact we took the allowance sheet out of our fostering pack till we had been to the residential prep course and had decided that we did want to go on and apply as we really didn't want to be encouraged or discouraged by the financial side of the equation as it really was the least important factor for us.

Original poster

shaz298 · 06/09/2010 09:46

Hi,

TBH it's not just about the finance for us either. Let's face it that's not why any onf us do it.

However it's also about support and training. TBH the counsil tend to get a bad reputation in this department.

Angeldust31: Thanks for your comments. ALthough I really don't understand the finer details of the fostering system I have a long history of working with accomodated children and am very aware of all the potential issues and vulnerabilities of the chldren we may foster.

We don't plan on doing any respite and want to have a long-term or permanent placement of a child younger than my son who will be 6 by then and possibly a child with a disability.

2 IFAs are quite confident that we would get such a placement but not sure still. I have spoken to several people and have requested information packs, including the LA.

We are right at the beginning of the whole process and won't be applying properly until we see that Luuk gets through the winter with no hospital admissions. If he can do that then we will go ahead, but if he ends up in hospital then we'll not be going ahead. Medically he's had a rough time but seems to have turned a corner, if he makes it through the winter healthy then he'll have been out of hospital for a whole year and it will then become a real possibility for us to foster.

SquidgyBrain - where in Scotland are you? I'm in Fife.

Cheers

Sharon

OP posts:

Minnerva · 06/09/2010 10:46

Oue LA pays us £270 pw all in for a 3 year old-payment differs for babies and older children.

As another posted mentioned-your placements are more likely to be frequent and shorter gaps netween placements and the age rage of LA looked afters varies hugely-they are not just older or harder to place children.

SquidgyBrain · 06/09/2010 11:03

Sharon you are of course right - I can think of many easier ways of making a living, although I can't think of any that are a more perfect "job" for me (well on paper I guess we shall have to see about the reality of it all)

You sound like you are being very sensible about it all, hopefully Luuk will make it through the winter and stay out of hospital and be healthy and you can proceed :)

We are in Angus :)

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