NORTHUMBERLAND County Council has confirmed it is in the process of reviewing payments to foster carers following calls from campaigners.

The payments had been frozen for the last decade, leaving foster carers in the county to be paid less than those in neighbouring authorities.

Northumberland is in desperate need of more foster carers, with the council running campaigns to try and attract more people amid overspends in the children’s services budget.

READ MORE: Record number of children in care in Northumberland

In July, £2.7 million in extra funding was provided to the children’s services fund to plug gaps, with the cabinet member for children’s services Cllr Guy Renner Thompson admitting that the “bulk” of the extra money went into children’s home placements, at an average cost of £6,000 a week.

A petition was presented to the Conservative leadership at county hall outlining the need for action on payments. A letter, seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, was also sent to all councillors.

It read: “Fees for Northumberland foster carers have been frozen for over 10 years, which amounts to a real term pay cut of 34 per cent. Foster carers are being forced to rely on their savings and pensions to get by, or forced out of fostering all together.

“Northumberland pays £67 less per week in fees than South Tyneside, £125 less per week than Cumberland, and £47 less per week than Scottish Borders. As a result, foster carers are struggling to get by and to provide the support the young people in our care deserve.

“This has led to Northumberland facing a retention and recruitment crisis as many foster carers have just given up. As a result, Northumberland is spending larger and larger amounts of money on extremely expensive private agencies to plug the gaps. This is unsustainable.”

Labour’s Cllr Julie Foster, shadow cabinet member for children’s services, urged the Tory administration to take action.

She said: “We rely on our dedicated Foster Carers to provide a stable, caring home and to look after our children, some of whom have very complex needs. Foster Carers not only look after and care for the child or children, but attend meetings with a number of professionals and the number of meetings vary in line with the children’s needs.

“This often means they are unable to seek employment to supplement the family income. Northumberland Foster Carers have not received what would be the equivalent of a pay rise in over 10 years! This cannot continue.

“Northumberland Labour Group fully support our Foster Carers and we will work with our four Northumberland Labour MPs to lever in funds from Government, to support our children and Foster Carers through fairer fees.”

Cllr Renner Thompson confirmed that a review would take place in the near future. He also criticised the previous Labour administration, which left office in 2017, for introducing the freeze in the first place.

He said: “The freeze in weekly payments was brought in by Labour when they ran the council. They have not raised the issue at all until now, eight months from the local elections.

“Northumberland Children's Services were recently ranked ‘Outstanding’ by OFSTED. The report cites the support, training and networks for foster families in Northumberland, which is not always available in other councils.

“When Labour ran NCC they failed children’s services which was graded by OFSTED as ‘Requires improvement’ in 2016. I will take no lessons from them.

“Our Foster Carers do vital work looking after children and young people who need it the most. Which is why we are reviewing the payments made to foster carers with draft proposals for an immediate uplift to the weekly payment, followed by another uplift in April 2025 as part of setting the annual council budget.

“This work is part of our wider review into looked after children’s placements. If a couple more children are able to be put into foster care instead of expensive children’s homes, then the uplift in payments to foster carers will pay for itself.”

The council itself has issued a statement outlining how the changes will be brought in.

A spokesman for the local authority said: “We are in the process of reviewing the fees paid to our foster carers and are well advanced with a business case to raise those payments.

“We are proposing a stepped approach that will see an improvement in fees now and then a further improvement in April 2025. This proposal aims to support foster families both in the short and medium term to strengthen our fostering model in Northumberland.

“Any agreement for an uplift in fees requires formal process and decision making and we are now in the process of sharing the documentation for approval by the wider Council. As soon as we have confirmation of decisions taken we will communicate the next steps with our foster carers.”