Foster and kinship carers - Scottish Recommended Allowance: implementation review
Findings from independent research that was commissioned by the Scottish Government to collect data on whether the implementation of the Scottish Recommended Allowance (SRA) had achieved (or was starting to achieve) its policy intent.
Footnotes
1 The term ‘independent and voluntary fostering provider’ (IVP) was also used in surveys and interviews and by some who took part in the research instead of the term ‘independent fostering agency’ (IFA). These terms are also used interchangeably in places in this report.
2 This information had previously been collected by the Scottish Government and so a decision was made not to request this as part of the survey.
3 As this information is required to be published online, a decision was made not to request this as part of the survey to minimize burdens on respondents.
4 Local authorities may deduct some child-related benefits that kinship carers receive from their allowance. This is to make sure that, overall, the amount they receive is equivalent to the fostering allowance amount paid by the local authority.
5 Oldfield, N. (1997) The Adequacy of Foster Care Allowances, Routledge: London
6 In 2015, the Scottish Government requested formal Kinship Carers and some informal Kinship Carers be paid in parity with foster care allowances (minus child related benefits) and so the allowances data provided by the Scottish Government for foster carers should also reflect what kinship carers received.
7 Introduction of the SRA was funded by £16 million from the Scottish Government.
8 Given the unique arrangements that were in place, these are not presented here as to do so may make the authorities identifiable.
9 See: Dennell et al. (2022) Continuing Care: An exploration of implementation [online] Available at: Continuing Care: An exploration of implementation
Contact
Email: Lucy.Whitehall@gov.scot