Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of national minimum fostering allowances and whether they adequately reflect the costs of looking after a fostered child.

The Fostering Services: National Minimum Standards, issued by the department under the Care Standards Act 2000 (CSA), set out the expectations that are placed on foster parents and their agencies. The department is clear that no one should suffer financially because of their fostering role and we expect all foster parents to receive at least the national minimum allowance (NMA), plus any agreed expenses to cover the full cost of caring for each child placed with them.

The NMA is uprated annually, with the next update to come into effect in April 2023.

Foster carers also receive Qualifying Care Relief that is made up of two parts, tax exemption on the first £10,000 shared equally among any foster carers in the same household and tax relief for every week a child is in their care.