Fostering - Your questions answered

Fostering through Gateshead Council now provides a weekly income which enables people to become self employed and to work from home.

Fostering for Gateshead Council is very much skills based work. Carers are able to utilise existing qualifications and transferable skills. There are four levels of payments which carers are able to move up or down depending on skills and commitments. Levels three and four demand a more specific skills base to be able to deal with more complex and challenging children.

Payment for skills was devised to meet the multiple needs of children in care in Gateshead. It recognises the need for a skilled workforce of foster carers and the fact that carers should be rewarded for the very important work they do.

The level of fee a carer receives will vary according to the level of skill, knowledge and experience that the carer has and is prepared to utilise in relation to the type of placement they offer.

Foster carers receive two types of payments:

Child allowance

Carers receive a fostering allowance each week for each child cared for:

Fostering fee

Carers receive payment for skills from £100 to £440 per week per child depending on skills, knowledge and experience and the type of placement offered.

Career progression

Payment for Skills presents to foster carers the prospect of a career pathway by progressing through the differing levels; however, there is no compulsion or expectation that a carer will do so. All carers' home situations are different and it is important that the right type of fostering is appropriate to individual familial circumstances.

Carers can enter Payment For Skills at any level provided they can demonstrate they meet relevant criteria and are prepared to undertake the relevant training elements. In addition to this carers must agree to utilise their skills by caring for children with the relevant level of need.