Foster Care Pay

We know money matters for our incredible fostering families. That’s why we pay each foster carer a competitive fee based on their skills and experience to thank them for their hard work.

As a Staffordshire foster carer you can earn up to £600 per child per week and in addition we offer extra payments for birthdays, festival/christmas and a holiday allowance before the 6 weeks holiday.

Although money might not be your first concern, it is important that you understand the fees and allowances in order to decide if fostering is affordable for your family.

Here at Foster for Staffordshire we would like to reassure you that it’s fine to ask about foster care pay and allowances, as it’s an important part of the fostering process.

How much will I be paid to foster?

During your assessment your skills and experience will be assessed and the level you start on will be discussed. Checks for financial stability will also be undertaken.

Our foster carer payments are made up of 2 parts:

  • an allowance to cover the cost of caring for a child - such as for food, clothing, transport, pocket money and activities
  • a professional fee to reward foster carers for:
    • being available to support a wide range of vulnerable children
    • reward for skills and experience
    • being available for emergency placements
    • supporting with other fostering related tasks

There are additional discretionary payments made at Christmas, a child's birthday and before the summer holidays.

You can download our payment for skills document to see how much you may be paid to foster. Please speak to a member of the team if you have any questions about our payment for skills scheme.

Specialist Schemes - Resilience Foster Care

If you have previous professional or personal experience working with vulnerable children who may have behavioural or emotional problems you may be interested in Resilience Fostering. These children will currently be living in residential care and we work with their homes to transition them back into a fostering family home.

This is a full-time role where there can be no other children in the household under the age of 18 and one adult must be available to support and care for the child on a full-time basis. 

As a Resilience foster carer, you'll receive between £721.07 and £779.38 per week.

Tax arrangements when you become a foster carer

When you become a foster carer, you’ll need to register as self-employed and file tax returns.

 You’ll also become entitled to qualifying care relief, which means you will:

  • Earn £10,000 from fostering before you have to pay tax* (set to increase)
  • You probably won’t pay any tax on your fostering allowance
  • Most state benefits are not affected by your fostering allowance
  • You’ll need to register as self-employed and pay National Insurance Contributions
  • Get tax relief for every week you foster a child

There’s more information about paying tax as a foster parent in the guide for foster parents on the UK Government website.

Already an approved foster carer?

We’re happy to discuss your individual circumstances if you decide you want to transfer to us based on your experience and skills, and if you have Staffordshire children already living with you we’ll match what your current foster agency is paying you.

Visit our transfer to us page for more information about changing your foster agency to Foster for Staffordshire.

Talk to the team

If you have any questions about the payment for skills scheme or are unsure what level you might start at please contact the team and we’d be happy to discuss it further with you.

Give our team a call or complete our enquiry form.