Looking for advice

[honey]

Hi all. Not sure if anyone will remember me but I used to post a couple of years ago as my parents were kinship carers for a family members 3 children. I have been visiting this site daily since, as it was a lot of use to us. Just to recap - the children went home to their parents. The parents have since seperated and the mother left so they are just with their dad. Anyway its another issue I need help with.

My parents have just taken on a friends child. Baby was originally with grandparents but their mother decided she didnt want him there anymore as the grandparents were apparently "trying to keep him". So they come in today with the kiddy and no social worker in sight. Though social worker has visited my parents and done the police check etc. It feels very much like they have set this up to be a private arrangement which my parents dont want. They will be applying for child benefit etc tomorrow. I was just wondering what they can do to make sure this is not a private arrangement with the mother?
I may have to hand over this account to them to post in the long run as I am due to have my baby in a matter of weeks, Im just looking for some help for them while I can lol.
Thanks in advance x

[fatcat]

hi

i'm afraid that this looks like a private arrangement, and therefore subject to private fostering arrangements. it seems to have been arranged directly between your parents and the child's mother 'with no social worker in sight'. therefore your parents could ask the mother for the chil's upkeep and claim whatever benefits that they can.

[honey]

Sorry, I meant that there was no social worker in sight today when the child was brought to my parents house. The social worker had been out to visit my parents in the last couple of days to speak to them and has been in contact via telephone. I just think its been made into a private arragement since the mother brought the child and not the social workers, it does seem to me that its been setup that way.

[honey]

Things got a little interesting. SS are paying a small amount of money

[David Roth]

honey, whether this is a private arrangement or a fostering arrangement will depend on how much of a role the local authority played in setting it up, and what was said to your parents at the time.

Legal precedent (the Southwark judgment) suggests that the child ought to be considered looked after if the local authority played a major role in arranging the placement. So even if a social worker didn't actually bring the child to your parents' door, it could be argued that the child ought to be looked after, and your parents ought to be getting paid and assessed as foster carers, if for exampled the local authority phoned up and asked them to take the child, and then arranged for the child to be brought round to them.

However, the child would NOT be considered looked after if the local authority made it clear AT THE TIME (ie not afterwards) that this was to be considered a private arrangement, and your parents accepted this.

If you parents were to be the child's foster carers, then they would not be able to claim child benefit, but they ought to be getting a fostering allowance, and going through a fostering assessment.

The

[David Roth]

Incidentally, in my above post when I talk about a private arrangement, I am as fatcat says in her post referring to a private fostering arrangement. The difference is:
- a private arrangement is when parents arrange for a close family member (eg grandparent, aunt, uncle, sibling) to raise their child for a while. The local authority doesn't have to do any checks, but can choose to, and can financially support using section 17 money;
- a private fostering arrangement is where parents arrange for the child to be raised for a while by someoen other than a close relative, eg a family friend. The local authority does have a responsibility to visit private fostering arrangements to ensure everything is OK for the child, and they can financially support using section 17 money, if circumstances warrant.

David R
FRG Policy Adviser