A ground-breaking case on kinship carer payments could leave local authorities with a huge bill, a social care lawyer has warned.
The High Court ruled that a 64-year-old grandmother who looks after her 15-year-old granddaughter should receive the same payments from Kent Council as foster parents would be entitled to.
The ruling increases the grandmother's weekly payment to £164 from £63.
Social care lawyer Edward Mitchell said: "This case could have big financial implications. Local authorities have just let family carers get on with it and now the court has come down on them and said this is foster care and should be funded accordingly."
If the Kent case sets a precedent, Mitchell said, it could also affect risk assessments.
"It will mean the obligations that are attached to a child who is fostered will kick in for these children who are looked after by family members," he said.
Fostering organisations are pleased with the decision.
"I think it's high time that kinship carers had their properly assessed needs fully met," said Jeffrey Coleman, Southern England Director of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF). "The child's needs can't be ignored and if they're as needy as children in foster care, despite being placed with family, the same resources should be provided.
"What we have at the moment is a disjointed system where there are these irrational differences in provision."
Raina Sheridan, chief executive of the Fostering Network, said the court's decision supported her organisation's stance on kinship carers.
"If a child goes to live with a relative because their own parents can’t look after them, the relative should undergo a through assessment to ensure that they will be able to look after the child properly and meet their needs," she said.
"This assessment should include a focus on the financial and practical support the carer and the child need, and if the child considered ‘in need’, their carer should receive an allowance, equivalent to that paid to foster carers, to cover the costs of looking after the child.”
Others have welcomed the judgement, saying it could lead to kinship carers receiving deserved recognition.
"People who offer to help should be given equal opportunities in every way," said Ed Merchant, a freelance assessor who works in kinship care.
Merchant said kinship carers were given the same assessments as other foster carers, but they did not receive any training. He hoped cases like this would lead to changes in the system.
"The requirements aren't the same and that's how local authorities justify paying family members less," he said. "But none of that is in the best interest of the child. Kinship carers should get the same training and the same money."
Fostering organisations are also pleased with the decision.
"I think it's high time that kinship carers had their properly assessed needs fully met," said Jeffrey Coleman, Southern England Director of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF). "The child's needs can't be ignored and if they're as needy as children in foster care, despite being placed with family, the same resources should be provided.
"What we have at the moment is a disjointed system where there are these irrational differences in provision."
Raina Sheridan, chief executive of the Fostering Network,
Kent plans to appeal.
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http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2010/05/11/114468/kinship-care-r...
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A kinship carer who looks after her granddaughter is to be paid the same wage as a foster carer, after winning a landmark ruling at the High Court.
The grandmother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, won her case against Kent County Council after a five-year battle.
She retired to start looking after her 15-year-old granddaughter in 2005, when Kent social services requested that she take the child into her care. But the council then argued that the girl's case was a "private arrangement".
That meant that the grandmother received £63.56 a week for the girl's care, as opposed to £146.23 each week, which is what the average foster parent receives.
The grandmother will now receive the same support as a foster carer, as well as back payments from the council.
Nigel Priestley, a lawyer from Ridley & Hall solicitors, who represented the grandmother, said Kent County Council "has been left with egg on its face", for suggesting the girl should not be treated as a looked-after child.
"The county council argued that it had no duty to the child even though its fingerprints were all over the case," he said.
"I accept when people say that blood is thicker than water, but the fact is that when you are 58 years old you are not planning to look after a 10-year-old child."
The grandmother added: "I put myself out and expected the local authority to do the same but they did not. When I heard that I had won I burst into tears. It means so much both to me and my granddaughter. Teenagers are very expensive to bring up – every parent knows that."
Lynn Chesterman, chief executive of The Grandparents' Association, said too many grandparents are looking after children without support.
"Unfortunately, this is all too common," she said. "It's the norm for grandparents to be given no help at all. I want to see grandparents offered the same support as those who look after children in care. Too often, as in this case, they are struggling to cope financially – living on a pension bringing up children and simply not having enough money."
Kent County Council plans to appeal the court's decision. If the Court of Appeal upholds the original decision it could cost the council a five-figure sum in legal costs and back payments.
http://www.cypnow.co.uk/news/ByDiscipline/Social-Care/1002373/Grandmothe...