Dudley Council may consider paying foster parents £100k a year in bid to 'cut costs'

Spiralling bills for Dudley children’s social services are one of the biggest drains on the council’s funds and the authority is considering taking foster parents on as members of staff to slash spending.

The plan was revealed by the council’s leader, Cllr Patrick Harley, who says his new director for children’s services, John Macilwraith, is behind the bold idea.

Cllr Harley told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Children’s Services is still a big worry, we have a new director of children’s services with a lot of new ideas particularly with SEND (special educational needs and disability).

“He came forward with a number of proposals, with really high dependency kids that need a lot of one-to-one care, probably three carers to one, that costs the authority half-a-million pounds a year.

“If we restructure our foster service and pay them a hell of a lot more than we do now, and maybe employ them as members of staff, that could save us about £350,000 per child.”

Currently foster carers get an allowance of up to £299 per week per child depending on age and level of need along with the level of experience of the foster carer.

The government also pays one-off payments as holiday and birthday allowances and there is also tax relief for foster carers.

The council is predicting an overspend of £15.4m in the High Needs Block of its Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) which will push the total deficit in the DSG to £53.8m.

Cllr Harley believes big savings from employing foster carers as staff, even on high wages, will help bring the deficit down.

He added: “You don’t need a lot of them to bring the cost of that High Need Block down, it’s looking at things that we don’t currently do.

“You would have to pay them probably £50,000 to 100,000 a year but if it saves you £350,000 per child it is well worth considering.”