Payment increase agreed for foster carers in Inverclyde
The amount of money foster carers for Inverclyde Council receive is to increase in a bid to retain and attract more people to the vital role.
The increase is part of an ongoing redesign of the service and was agreed at a recent meeting of Inverclyde Integration Joint Board (IJB), the organisation which manages HSCP services locally.
Since the pandemic, across Scotland there has been an increase in the number of children needing foster care at the same time as a fall in the number of foster carers. This is the case in Inverclyde where the number of foster households has fallen to 20 from 34 in May 2020, a 41 per cent reduction in capacity.
To combat this, Inverclyde Council has committed £700,000 for 2025-2026 to support ongoing transformation across HSCP Children’s Services.
As part of an ongoing review, the service looked at fostering fee payments and how Inverclyde’s foster carer payments compared to other authorities.
As a result, Inverclyde IJB has agreed to increase the fee from the current £195.75 for one or two children per week, to £350 per child, per week.
It is hoped the increase will reflect the value placed on current foster carers and encourage more to become foster carers with the council.
Councillor Francesca Brennan, vice-chair of Inverclyde IJB, said:
“This is a very welcome move and I was delighted that it received universal agreement from members of the IJB.
“Where we have young people whose experiences mean that they need to be looked after away from home, foster carers play such an important role in those young people’s lives. All the research shows that if we can support young people from Inverclyde to stay in Inverclyde, there are much more positive outcomes.
“Too often we have to send a child or young person in crisis to foster care outwith our authority away from their friends and school because we simply don’t have local foster carers available.
“I am confident this increase in payments shows how much we value our existing foster carers and will encourage new people to come forward. It makes it a viable and positive move for people who’d like to become foster carers and gives our young people a brighter future.”
Anyone interested in finding out more about becoming a foster carer with Inverclyde Council can find out more by clicking the link on the page.
The committee report can be viewed via the link above and a recording of the meeting is available on the council’s YouTube channel.