Summary: The Council was not at fault for refusing to pay Ms B a formal allowance when she was looking after a child under a private fostering arrangement. Nor was it at fault for ending the temporary financial support it gave her in lieu of an allowance. However, it was at fault for failing to confirm that Ms B had started receiving support from the child’s mother. This likely contributed to Mrs B going without financial support for a short period. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a symbolic payment to recognise her injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Ms B, temporarily looked after one of her daughter’s friends, whom I refer to as C.
2. Ms B complains that the Council failed to provide her with any proper financial support while she was looking after C. She says it did provide her with a small allowance but then stopped it without telling her.
3. Ms B says this caused her a financial injustice. She wants the Council to backdate a fostering allowance for the period C was in her care.
4. Ms B also complains that:
• She looked after C for long periods without any input, support or guidance from the Council, and she was unaware of plans for C’s long-term care.
• The Council failed to find alternative accommodation for C in early 2023 even after it accepted the damage that the placement was having on Ms B’s relationship with her own daughter.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

5. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
6. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)
7. Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered information from Ms B and the Council.
9. I considered relevant statutory guidance and the Council’s procedures.
10. Ms B and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Law and guidance

Statutory guidance

11. ‘Children Act 1989: Private fostering’ is a government document which tells councils how to implement The Children (Private Arrangements for Fostering) Regulations 2005.
12. A private fostering arrangement is one that is made without the involvement of a local authority.
13. A council must distinguish between a private arrangement made between parents and carers, and arrangements in which it (the council) has been involved (and the child concerned is legally defined as being in local authority care).
14. If a council believes a child’s developmental needs are not being met, it should assess whether the child is in need of support services.
15. If parents are failing to exercise their responsibilities (such as failing to pay maintenance), a social worker should try to find out if there is a problem, give advice and take ‘appropriate action as necessary’.
16. Private foster carers must agree financial arrangements with parents. If these arrangements are not satisfactory, councils should discuss with foster carers what they might do to help. Exceptionally, councils can assist private foster carers through short periods of financial hardship.

The Council’s procedures

17. Children living in private fostering arrangements are not in local authority care, and therefore the Council will not make payments to private foster carers. Financial responsibility for the child remains with the parents.
18. However, after finding out about a private fostering placement, a social worker from the Council will:
• Visit the private foster carer within a week, and every six weeks thereafter for the first year.
• Confirm that the financial arrangements between the private foster carer and the child’s parents are working.

What happened

19. In May 2022 the Council received a telephone call from the Police. C was at the station and was refusing to go home to her mother or her father. She had provided Ms B’s name and said she could stay there. The Council told the Police that this was a matter for C’s parents, not the Council.
20. The Police gained consent from C’s parents and took her to Ms B’s home.
21. Afterwards, the Council spoke to C’s parents, who both confirmed that they agreed C could stay with Ms B. The Council told them it was their responsibility to make arrangements for C’s care. C’s mother said she would contact Ms B to discuss this.
22. Ms B says the Council visited her and asked her if C could stay with her until she could return home or other arrangements could be put in place. Ms B says the Council told her there was nowhere else for C to go. I have not seen any evidence of this conversation.
23. After C’s school raised concerns that her mother was not financially meeting her needs, the Council agreed to give Ms B £70 per week, as a temporary measure, to help her do so instead.
24. In June, the Council confirmed to C’s parents that they remained financially responsible for C. And it reiterated to Ms B that the weekly payment was temporary.
25. The Council completed an assessment in September. It noted that Ms B was receiving some financial support. It agreed to review the assessment in the new year.
26. A private fostering social worker from the Council visited Ms B in October.
27. The Council then held a meeting with Mrs B, and, after the meeting, rang C’s mother her to remind her that she was responsible for paying for C’s care. She told the Council that she was in employment and was now meeting all of C’s financial needs, including bed and board.
28. The Council ended Ms B’s weekly payments shortly afterwards. It noted that C’s mother was now financially meeting her needs and Ms B had been receiving the payments for much longer than others had when they were in a similar position.
29. There is no evidence that the Council spoke to Ms B about ending her payments beforehand, or checked whether she had started receiving financial support from C’s mother.
30. In November, the Council held a meeting about C’s care, which Ms B attended. She said C could stay with her for longer if she needed to. The plan at that point – which Ms B was party to – was that a ‘family group conference’ would be held to plan for C’s long-term care.
31. At the beginning of February 2023, the Council updated its assessment. The social worker noted that Ms B was (by her own account) only receiving a total of £100 per month from C’s parents (and this had only started the previous month). She said it was not enough. She asked for a fostering allowance.
32. The manager who signed off the assessment concluded that:

I am … in full support of … requesting an urgent [legal planning meeting] as I do not agree that this arrangement is safe or suitable as it does not meet private fostering national minimum standards. If birth parents are not in agreement to this arrangement then they need to assert their parental responsibility and seek support from Childrens services to return their daughter into their care, if they are not in agreement with this, then they need to [allow the Council] to identify a suitable foster placement for [C] that will provide her with the safety and stability that she deserves.

33. It appears that one of the reasons for the manager’s conclusions was the impact C’s placement was having on Ms B’s own daughter and her relationship with
    Ms B.
34. The Council’s records suggest that, in February and March, it explored alternative placement options for C.
35. In March, the Council contacted C’s mother and told her Ms B was unhappy with the £100-per-month financial arrangement. It said it was up to C’s parents and
    Ms B to work things out between themselves.
36. C’s mother said she fed C most nights and paid for clothes and school trips in addition to the £100 monthly payments. She said she could not afford to pay any more. She said any additional payments should come from C’s father.
37. C left Ms B’s care in April. Over the course of the her time with Ms B, the Council either met or visited Ms B or C regularly.

My findings

Financial support

38. The Council did not play a role in C going to live with Ms B, and it did not seek to prevent her returning to the care of either of her parents at any time. And, although Ms B says the Council asked C to stay with her longer-term and said C had nowhere else to go, I have seen no evidence of this conversation.
39. Because of this, there was no fault in the Council’s decision that this was a private fostering arrangement. Which means Ms B was not entitled to an allowance.
40. However, the Council decided that, as a temporary measure, it would provide financial support to Ms B (which it was entitled to do). It then ended that support – which it was also entitled to do – when it heard from C’s mother that she was financially responsible for C.
41. However, it appears C’s mother was not, in fact, paying for C’s care. And, although the Council’s procedures say it will confirm that financial arrangements between a private foster carer and a child’s parents are working, it did not do so before ending Ms B’s payments.
42. This does not mean the Council had to continue giving Ms B financial support. But it was, nonetheless, fault by the Council, and the consequence was that Ms B went almost another three months before receiving anything from C’s mother (a situation which could possibly have been rectified had the Council checked in advance).
43. The Council should apologise to Ms B for this and should offer her a symbolic financial remedy.
44. When, in 2023, Ms B told the Council that she was now receiving money from C’s mother but it was insufficient, the Council acted in line with the statutory guidance by discussing this with C’s mother. But C left Ms B’s care shortly afterwards, so the matter was not resolved. This was not the Council’s fault.

Other support

45. Although Ms B was not involved in any of the planning for C’s care, the Council either visited or met with her (or C) regularly over the course of C’s placement. It met its commitment of visiting at least every six weeks (as set out in its procedures). So I have found no fault with the Council on this point.

The end of the placement

46. When the Council completed its private fostering assessment in February 2023, it decided C’s placement was unsuitable and ‘urgent’ steps should be taken to find alternatives.
47. C’s records demonstrate that the Council began looking for other options quite quickly, and, after exhausting the other options, moved C from Ms B’s care.
48. The Council was not at fault for how it dealt with this situation.
49.  

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Agreed actions

50. Within a month, the Council has agreed to:
• Apologise to Ms B for not checking C’s mother was paying her financial support.
• Make a symbolic payment to Ms B of £300 to recognise that its failure to check this may have contributed to her lack of financial support over a three-month period.
51. The Council will provide us with evidence it has done these things.

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Final decision

52. The Council was not at fault for refusing to pay Ms B an allowance when she was looking after C under a private fostering arrangement. However, it was at fault for failing to check that Ms B’s financial arrangements with C’s mother were working.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman