Please treat this as a request for information under the FOIA 2000 in respect of Financial Assistance (s17 of the Children Act 1989), as follows below:
In relation to the children’s social care department, please provide the criteria and/or assessment by which a social worker uses to determine the prospective person(s) who is responsible for caring for the child eligibility to receive payment(s) of money
In relation to the Children’s Social Care department, what size/sum of money is acceptable to be given as cash and when should a payment be made into the recipient parent(s) who is responsible for caring for the child’s bank account and what other factors influence whether the payment should be made via cash or paid into the recipient’s bank account
We rarely give out cash payments for S17 support – our offer is food vouchers, payment by BACS and also payment of third party invoices. Only in very rare circumstances, where no other payment method is available, would we provide cash which would be assessed on a case by case basis. The social worker should take the cash to the recipient and then the recipient should sign the petty cash paperwork to confirm they have received it from the worker.
Please provide your template / commonly used document for capturing the recipient’s signature used to confirm they have received the stated amount of money if paid to them in cash
This can be seen below:
In circumstances where the resident parent with parental responsibility is in receipt of financial assistance from the Local Authority, should the details including the frequency and sums of payments made be communicated to the non-resident parent with parental responsibility and/or stated in the Supervision Order Plan?
This is down to the individual circumstances of the child and the family