{"id":8078,"date":"2021-11-17T15:48:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-17T15:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/democracy\/?page_id=8078"},"modified":"2024-05-10T14:55:01","modified_gmt":"2024-05-10T13:55:01","slug":"children-in-care-pocket-money-and-allowances","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/democracy\/councillors-info\/information-for-members\/briefings-for-members\/children-and-schools\/children-in-care-pocket-money-and-allowances\/","title":{"rendered":"Children in Care &#8211; Pocket Money and Allowances"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Pocket money<\/strong><br>The standard weekly rate includes money for a young person to have pocket<br>money. We believe it is unhelpful to be too rigid about levels of pocket money<br>but offer the following guidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Levels need to relate to what is comparable in the young person&#8217;s own family,<br>to what is given to the carer&#8217;s own children, and to what the young person can<br>expect to receive when he or she leaves the placement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Suggested minimum allowance:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>5-8 years: \u00a33.50<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>9-12 years: \u00a35.00<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>13-16 years: \u00a37.00 \u2013 \u00a310.00<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>16 +: To be negotiated through the young people\u2019s Pathway Plan.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>These are minimum figures, and it is recommended that carers create<br>incentives by supplementing the weekly allowance with rewards for jobs done<br>and good behaviour, and with extra for special events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Birthday and Festival allowances<\/strong><br>These payments are intended to cover the costs of gifts, entertainment and<br>incidental expenses. Payments are made around the relevant time to allow<br>carers to buy gifts. If a child moves placement within two weeks of the birthday<br>or festival, either the gifts or the allowance will transfer to the new placement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Birthdays and Festivals allowance:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>0-4 years: \u00a3100<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>5-10 years: \u00a3164.80<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>11-15 years: \u00a3205.24<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>16 +: \u00a3249.71<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Where children in placement observe a religious festival other than Christmas,<br>this should be discussed with their social worker. The allowance will still be<br>paid before Christmas, and carers and social workers should agree when it is<br>most appropriately spent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Holiday allowances<\/strong><br>Holiday opportunities for children and young people in care should be made<br>available and discussed with the child\u2019s social worker and fostering<br>Supervising Social Worker and agreed as part of the Care Plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, where children accompany foster carers on holiday the carer will<br>receive the holiday allowance. The holiday allowance will also be paid to<br>carers taking holidays which are at home and day trips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Occasionally in respect of older teenagers and their individual circumstances,<br>for example, when they are clearly stating they do not want to go on holiday or<br>for day trips with their foster carer, consideration can be given to funding<br>activities\/days out for the young person as an alternative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If the foster carer is not providing a holiday or day trips, the holiday allowance<br>may be used to pay for a holiday experience elsewhere. For example, a<br>school trip abroad or residential holiday. Holiday allowances are not applicable<br>in situations where the child is visiting or staying over with relatives or friends<br>of the carer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Payments are not made automatically, they must be claimed by foster carers<br>in advance of the planned holiday. The resource request form must be<br>submitted by the child\u2019s social worker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Holiday allowances are paid once a year for each child. Where children move<br>placement during the year and the first carer has already received the holiday<br>allowance, any payment to the second carer will be at the discretion of the<br>child\u2019s social worker and Team Manager considering the child\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Holidays allowance:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>0-4 years: \u00a3426.02<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>5-10 years: \u00a3426.02<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>11-15 years: \u00a3426.02<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>16 +: \u00a3426.00<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Janet Fraser<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Deputy Chief Officer (Head of Children&#8217;s Health and Wellbeing)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>17th November 2021<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pocket moneyThe standard weekly rate includes money for a young person to have pocketmoney. We believe it is unhelpful to be too rigid about levels of pocket moneybut offer the following guidelines. Levels need to relate to what is comparable in the young person&#8217;s own family,to what is given to the carer&#8217;s own children, and&hellip;<\/p>\n <span class=\"orange text-excerpt\">&gt;<\/span>","protected":false},"author":2236,"featured_media":0,"parent":3700,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-8078","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-12 03:49:51","action":"Draft","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/democracy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/democracy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/democracy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/democracy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2236"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/democracy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8078"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/democracy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9196,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/democracy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8078\/revisions\/9196"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/democracy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/democracy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}