Receiving financial assistance
In addition to ongoing support, advice and guidance from the fostering service, foster carers should expect to receive financial support to care for children and young people.
This may come in the form of initial ‘start up payments’ to ensure carers have financial support for practical home items. These may include beds or other items specific to the needs of a child.
We also provide foster carers with travel expenses to cover the fuel costs of attending training or meetings, or transporting a child to school or to spend time with their family.
In addition, carers are provided with a foster carer fee, which is designed to cover household costs and general day-to-day expenses. A separate child allowance is also provided to pay for things like clothing, mobile phones, pocket money, holidays, hobbies and activities. These two payments are combined and paid fortnightly to carers in advance.
Foster carer allowances 2024 to 2025
We have responded to the implementation of the Scottish Recommended Allowance for Foster and Kinship Carers. This means we will provide the following child allowances to foster carers:
- 0 to 4 year olds: £168.31 per week per child
- 5 to 10 year olds: £195.81 per week per child
- 11 to 15 year olds: £195.81 per week per child
- 16 years and over: £268.41 per week per child
Combined foster carer fees and child allowances
Child allowances are paid at the rate set by the Scottish Recommended Allowance for Foster Carers. The calculation of the foster care fee will depend on the number of children in the household, and their ages.
Examples of combined payments:
- for care of a four-year-old, carers should expect to receive a weekly child allowance of £168.31 and a weekly household fee of £266.93 – this results in a weekly payment of £435.24 per week
- for the care of two children, in this example aged 6 and 13, carers should expect to receive weekly child allowances of £391.62 and a weekly allowance of £354.38 – this results in a weekly payment of £724.06 per week
- for the care of a young person aged over 16, carers should expect to receive a weekly allowance of £268.41 and a weekly household fee of £244.78 – this results in a weekly payment of £513.19 per week
Carers who currently foster with another agency
We will ensure that any carers currently approved with another agency, who wish to foster with us, are not financially disadvantaged when they are approved with us.
They should expect the same level of financial support, or greater, than they would receive from their current agency. This will be written into their carer agreement at the point of being approved with us.