Foster carer fees

Foster carers have a unique role within the children’s sector – they are some of the only individuals who provide care for children in their own homes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and welcome them into their families. Foster carers should be provided with adequate fee payments to recognise their time, skills and experience and to make fostering a viable and sustainable option for prospective foster carers looking to make a difference in the lives of children. 

Whilst all foster carers should receive the national minimum allowance in their nation to cover the costs of caring for a child in foster care, there is no requirement for fostering services to provide foster carers with a fee or any minimum amount. As a result, there are huge differences in fees paid to foster carers across the country, with some receiving no fee and many as little as £18 a week.  

We know from our State of the Nations surveys that making a difference to children’s lives is more important to foster carers than a financial reward, but fees must be attractive and fit for purpose to ensure that anyone who wants to foster is financially supported to do so and not left out of pocket.  Our most recent report shows that foster carers receive on average low fees and are subjected to a disparate postcode lottery. 

Read the report here

Key findings

• Mainstream foster carer fees in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland vary considerably with some foster carers receiving £732 less per week than foster carers in a different local authority or trust, a difference of £38,000 per year. 

• Some local authorities and trusts provided as little as £18 a week for their lowest paid mainstream foster carers and as much as £750 a week for others. Most commonly, higher fee rates were provided to foster carers as they were deemed to develop a higher skill level or had been fostering longer. 

• The most common mainstream foster carer fee was between £100-200 per week with 46% of fees falling in this category. This equates to £5,200 - £10,400 per year.  

• Overall, England had the greatest variance in fees. Foster carer fees in Wales were more consistent but on average lower than the other nations. 

• 4% (5) LAs in England, 19% (6) LAs in Scotland, 0 LAs in Wales and 66.6% (2) trusts in Northern Ireland provided a fee that is above the National Living Wage (NLW) for a 40-hour week. The NLW is £11.44 per hour.   

• Based on a notional 40-hour week, almost 60% of mainstream LA foster carer fees were the equivalent of less than £5 an hour. 

• Of the kinship foster carers who do receive a fee, 80% of local authorities and trusts provided kinship foster carers with the same fees as they did for mainstream foster carers. However, many kinships foster carers were placed on the lowest bands.

• 60% of local authorities increase their fee rates as foster carers are deemed to gain skills, either through attending training, completing qualifications or length of time being a foster carer. 

• Our State of the Nations Foster Care survey 2024 shows that most foster carers, local authorities and trusts want a national fees framework, similar to the national minimum/recommended allowance.  

• Only two LAs (both in England) declared that they do not provide any of their foster carers with a fee. However, our findings also show that fostering services need to be more clear about the split between allowances and fees. 

• Our 2024 State of the Nations Survey findings show that most foster carers do not work alongside their fostering role (around 60% in England, Scotland and Wales and 45% in Northern Ireland). In each nation, under 20% of foster carers are in full-time employment. 

The importance of fees

Our FOIs have shown that many foster carers on the lowest fees are those who are new to fostering or have not yet completed certain training. Local authorities and government officials must consider how providing new foster carers with very low fees impacts the recruitment and retention of foster carers. Fees must be competitive to bring more carers into the field as well as fit for purpose to ensure that anyone who wants to foster is financially supported to do so and not left out of pocket. This is particularly relevant if services want to attract a greater skill level into fostering and for the public to see fostering as a viable role.

Statistics from our State of the Nations 2024 survey found that most foster carers who responded do not work alongside their fostering role. For foster carers on low or no alternative income, insufficient fees could result in them not being able to meet the costs of living and in worst cases living in poverty. No foster carer should be expected to live in poverty. Fostering services are recruiting foster carers with the skills to transform children’s lives, so there should be a level of fee that recognises this important and unique role. The demographic pool of foster carers will inevitably be limited to those who can afford to foster without receiving an adequate fee if foster carer fees remain low.  

What should change 

• Each government of the UK should carry out comprehensive reviews of foster carer fees to investigate and address the low level of fee rates and UK-wide postcode lottery. 

• Each government of the UK should create a national recommended foster carer fee reviewed each year in line with inflation. Governments of the UK should work together to ensure consistency between these recommended fees.  

• Every foster carer, approved with LAs or IFAs and including kinship foster carers and post-foster care carers, should receive the same consistent fee. 

• Every foster carer should receive a national recommended fee payment in addition to the child’s allowance. The national recommended fee can be uplifted to reflect different fostering situations, for example emergency or parent and child placements, where a multiplier may be applied to the fee to recognise additional requirements of the role. Any identified additional needs of children should be paid as an enhancement to the child's allowance and not to the foster carer’s fee payment. 

• Every foster carer should receive a fee payment for 52 weeks a year, provided they remain approved and available to foster children and young people matched to their family. This includes periods where the fostering service are investigating allegations, concerns or complaints until the process is concluded. 

• Governments should invest in fostering services to ensure that the necessary financial support is available to provide the national recommended foster carer fee to every foster carer. 

• Governments should regulate to monitor the implementation of a national recommended fee to ensure consistency of publishing and reporting across the UK.  

• Every foster carer should receive transparent and clear information which enables them to understand how their fostering payments are made. This should distinguish clearly between foster carer fees and the child’s allowances.

If you want to get in touch with our policy and campaigns team for more information about our report on foster carer fees, please email policy@fostering.net.