Introduction

This chapter explores the financial consequences for foster parents of fostering a child. It presents a method for estimating the direct and indirect costs to foster families of a foster child, and examines whether the foster care allowance is adequate to cover these costs. In the case of foster care allowances, the local authorities similarly have regard to the resources that are available and take into account local supply and demand factors. The foster care allowance is paid merely to reimburse the carer for the financial cost of the foster child’s upkeep: foster parents are paid an allowance which is expected to cover the additional costs of maintaining their foster child. A fostering service inevitably competes for funding with other local authority services, such as services for the elderly or child protection services. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.