At a meeting of COSLA Leaders on Friday August 28, councillors from across Scotland discussed the funding package from the Scottish government for kinship carers and the payment of allowances to make it equal with the funding for foster carers.

The financial model shows that the cost of for delivering parity between kinship carers and foster carers was £6.6 million; and a further £6.8m would be required to extend the allowances to families of former looked after children with Section 11 orders. The total estimated cost of achieving parity between all kinship carers and foster carers is in the region of £17 million.

The news was welcomed by local campaigners, however it was claimed more still needed to be done.

Micheleine Kane, chair of Kinship Carers West Dunbartonshire welcomed the news, but says there is still a way to go: “To be in line with foster carers, this is a big step forward for kinship carers, but we’ll have to see how it works in practice, this funding could take away other benefits, like tax credit and child benefits, so it could take away one benefit, and give another, and people could be left worse off.

“We’ll keep on fighting for rights, we have to get it right for every child.

“We want to help West Dunbartonshire carers as a whole, apart form allowances, we want support for the group, help and support for the children, and to end the stigma of children feeling they’re different from others.

“Groups in Glasgow across the board get better services, and we’ll keep fighting till we have them here too.” Following negotiations with COSLA, the Scottish government has now agreed to contribute £3.3m or 50 per cent of the costs to ensure that all Scottish councils can ensure that kinship carers and foster carers equal allowances is achieved. The Scottish government has also agreed to fund 100 per cent (£6.8m) to extend the allowances to families of former looked after children with Section 11 orders.

Council leader Martin Rooney said: “This has been a long hard fought campaign by kinship carer groups across Scotland but they have achieved their ultimate aim and secured parity with foster carers in relation to allowances. I am pleased that families in West Dunbartonshire who have taken on the responsibility for the care of grandchildren and other relatives will now receive the funding support they deserve.” Delivering parity in allowances will finally resolve a long running issue and provides a firm basis to build longer term policy that is able to respond to changes in the benefit system. The local parity model was developed by Inverclyde Council.

This model means that kinship carers receive an allowance which when combined with the state benefits brings them to parity with foster carers.

Cllr Rooney added: “The conclusion of negotiations between COSLA and the Scottish Government means that West Dunbartonshire Council could start paying the new rates from October 2015.”