Kinship carer payment pilot 'real recognition'
BBCA payment pilot for kinship carers is a "real recognition" of the financial and emotional toll that caring can take, a council has said.
Newcastle is one of seven Kinship Zones that will share £126m funding for grandparents, aunts, uncles and family friends who step in to provide care for children.
Labour council leader Karen Kilgour said being part of the trial would allow the city to "go further, faster" with tailored support.
Nichola Randall, 50, of Kenton Bar, who looks after her niece and nephew, welcomed the payment, adding: "If I had more guaranteed, stable funding then it would mean I could drop more hours at work and have more time with the kids."
"At the moment, with the finances we are entitled to and my wages I cannot afford to do that."
Thea Watkins, 58, of Hedley on the Hill, Northumberland, took responsibility for her now 10-year-old grandson when he was just two, after receiving a shock phone call to say he was being taken into care and would be put up for adoption.
She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service it was "quite a big thing to take on" and to balance with working life as a teacher, but she now thinks of him as her third child.
Speaking after meeting with other kinship carers at Newcastle Civic Centre to mark the launch of the pilot, she said: "Sometimes you feel like you are alone."
While some councils do already pay kinship carers, it can vary and they are not entitled to the same consistent financial allowance as foster carers.
Other new Kinship Zones include Bolton in Greater Manchester, North East Lincolnshire, Thurrock in the east of England, Bexley in Greater London, Medway in the South East and Wiltshire in the South West.
The government said about 5,000 children would benefit from the new financial allowance being trialled, which would be equivalent to what foster carers receive.
The pilot scheme will run for up to three and a half years, with funding confirmed for the first two.
