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Payments and allowances
We understand that people foster because they care and they want to make a difference to children and young people. However, we also understand that our carers must receive payment – we all have bills to pay!
We provide generous allowances to foster carers, which are to cover the costs of the child’s food, clothes, pocket money, etc.
Our carers then move their way through the payment levels, gaining experience, further training and the vital skills needed to make a difference to Leicestershire’s children and young people in care.
We pay mileage of 45 pence per mile to our foster carers in relation to transporting our children to appointments and contact meetings too.
There are several other allowances available from Leicestershire County Council to support you to look after our children. These include uniform and clothing allowances, festival allowance paid for religious holidays and birthday allowance, to ensure our children and young people get to enjoy their special days too.
We also believe that payment is not just about the money. It's essential that our carers are supported in their role and this is why every carer will have their own supervising social worker, access to support 24/7 and our dedicated support team and our very popular annual foster carer’s awards event and foster carer fun days throughout the year.
As members of The Fostering Network, our carers will also have access to offers and reductions including mortgage deals, house insurance offers and reduced admittance to theme parks.
As a guide, here are our current payments to foster carers, per child, per week:
Level 1 | Age 0-4 | Age 5-10 | Age 11-15 | Age 16+ |
Weekly skills fee | £33.00 | £36.50 | £41.75 | £48.50 |
Weekly Fostering allowance | £132.00 | £146.00 | £167.00 | £194.00 |
Weekly Level 1 total | £165.00 | £182.50 | £208.75 | £242.50 |
Annual Level 1 total | £8,580.00 | £9,490.00 | £10,855.00 | £12,610.00 |
Level 2 | Age 0-4 | Age 5-10 | Age 11-15 | Age 16+ |
Weekly skills fee | £66.00 | £73.00 | £83.50 | £97.00 |
Weekly Fostering allowance | £132.00 | £146.00 | £167.00 | £194.00 |
Weekly Level 2 total | £198.00 | £219.00 | £250.00 | £291.00 |
Annual Level 2 total | £10,296.00 | £11,388.00 | £13,026.00 | £15,132.00 |
Level 3 | Age 0-4 | Age 5-10 | Age 11-15 | Age 16+ |
Weekly skills fee | £99.00 | £109.50 | £125.25 | £145.50 |
Weekly Fostering allowance | £132.00 | £146.00 | £167.00 | £194.00 |
Weekly Level 3 total | £231.00 | £255.50 | £292.25 | £339.50 |
Annual Level 3 total | £12,012.00 | £13,286.00 | £15,197.00 | £17,654.00 |
Level 4 | Age 0-4 | Age 5-10 | Age 11-15 | Age 16+ |
Weekly skills fee | £184.00 | £204.40 | £233.80 | £271.60 |
Weekly Fostering allowance | £132.00 | £146.00 | £167.00 | £194.00 |
Weekly Level 4 total | £316.00 | £350.40 | £400.00 | £465.60 |
Annual Level 4 total | £16,432.00 | £18,220.80 | £20,841.60 | £24,211.20 |