IN FEBRUARY this year Tommy McFall, a vociferous Kinship
Care campaigner from East Glasgow, and a carer himself, gave evidence to the
Education and Culture Committee on the unjust disparity of support between
children in Foster Care and those in Kinship Care. The committee took the issue
seriously and followed up his presentation by launching an informal
investigation into the postcode lottery for Kinship support between Local
Authorities and between Foster and Kinship Carers within them. They wrote to
each Local Authority, the Minister for Children and Young People, COSLA and the
Department for Work and Pensions and asked them to respond to a number of
questions.
The resulting responses make up the most revealing evidence
of the postcode lottery yet, with payments for Foster Carers coming out way
above Kinship in almost every case, and financial and non financial support for
Kinship Carers also varying massively. For example Highland Council pays a £400 starter grant,
£200 for summer holidays and £100 for christmas to each child in Kinship Care
on top of a weekly grant, whereas North Ayrshire pays £400 per week to foster
carers and only £55 to kinship carers. Glasgow still comes out at the bottom of
the list paying foster carers an average of £175/week and kinship carers just
£50.
On 20th March the committee considered the evidence they had
received. The discussion they had was kept private but with such compelling
evidence of unfair treatment of Scotland's most vulnerable children the
committee should hopefully be moved to act. At the same time the petitions
committee discussed the Clackmannanshire carers petition and decided to refer
it to the Education and Culture Committee for further consideration.
See papers of 20th March 2012 at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/CurrentCommittees/29802.aspx
for the full responses from 24 councils.
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