Financial skills, education and money management for children and young people are fundamental in ensuring that they are equipped and prepared for adult life.
Being confident in managing finances and empowered to be in control has many benefits. Helping children to understand and value money from an early age will develop healthy habits around money and will help them to manage it well as an adult.
For children who are in care, there is a requirement for fostering services to ensure financial education. Foster carers also play a key part in ensuring that young people are supported with managing their own money, financially aware and protected from financial abuse.
Savings
The long-term wellbeing of children is paramount and supporting a child’s transition to adult life is a key part of promoting their long-term wellbeing. To support this transition as part of good corporate parenting practice, and to promote consistency and fairness, local authorities and fostering services should ensure that children in care have savings made on their behalf.
Savings are important for young people and can start at any age. The sooner a child starts saving and being aware of money matters, the more they can begin to understand and plan for their future. Whether it is short-term savings, such as saving for a computer game or going on holiday, or long-term saving for a future goal – a deposit on a home or a car – it is never too early to start.
Pocket money
The Fostering Network do not produce specific guidance on pocket money rates however we recognise that foster carers have an important role in educating and supporting children and young people in the responsible use of money, including pocket money, short term and long term savings. This is particularly important for older children and young people preparing for independence, click the link below for further points to consider when developing a policy around pocket money provision.
Long-term savings
While there are many examples of good practice by foster carers in facilitating savings for the children in their care, the practice is inconsistent across the sector.
This Practice Information Note on long-term savings seeks to ensure all children and young people cared for have parity and equality of opportunity and recommends that fostering services across the UK save long-term for the children they care for by way of centralised deductions at source.
Savings: practice resources and information
The Fostering Network is committed to collating practice, information and providing comprehensive details of the issues and matters arising relating to savings.
- Practice resources
- Useful organisations
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The following organisations may be helpful for further support:
- Young people, savings and financial education
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The Fostering Network has identified free resources [Word download] available to help children and young people in care to build their knowledge and confidence with money. These resources deliver effective, relevant and age-appropriate financial education to children in care and young people about to leave care.
We are committed to providing information on all aspects of finance, money management and savings for children and young people, and will be adding information and resources to this page on a rolling basis. You may also want to read our information about finance for foster carers.
We welcome further suggestions, useful resources and practice examples to include within this – please contact sarah.mcenhill@fostering.net to share your updates.
Last updated: December 2022
