Getty ImagesSophie* didn’t hesitate when her two grandchildren needed immediate care following their mother’s mental health breakdown.
Almost four years later, she says she has been left on the brink of poverty after being his main carer – but without any financial support.
Birmingham Children’s Trust set up the placement as a family arrangement, despite going so far as to say children “must not be removed” from Sophie’s care.
“I’ve been left in a situation where I can’t afford the children so I’ve been left to struggle – but I can’t put them in a care home,” she said.
A charity said the situation is mirrored across England and Wales, with thousands of family members struggling to financially look after their young relatives because there is no special allowance they can apply for. are
A kinship carer, also known as a family and friends carer, is a private arrangement between a parent and a relative, friend, or may arise out of involvement in children’s services.
A relationship Foster A carer is when a family or friend carer is assessed by children’s services to look after a child.
The local authority shares parental rights with the parents – but the carer receives regular foster care allowance.
Sophie is fighting for recognition as a kinship foster carer, but has so far been refused by Birmingham Children’s Trust.
Sophie’s daughter began suffering from postpartum psychosis after the birth of her second child, and in December 2020, police temporarily removed both children from her care.
The children stayed with their aunt and grandmother for two weeks before social workers decided they could return home.
But by February 2021 his mother’s condition had worsened, prompting her to make a distressing 999 call to plead for her son and daughter to be taken out of the house for their own safety.
Social services were approached, who knew the family, and a social worker contacted Sophie to ask if she could look after the children.
“I agreed to look after them both overnight, but I didn’t confirm a long-term arrangement because I knew my life would change,” she said.
“But as I watched them sleep through the night, I knew I couldn’t leave them.”
The trust’s child protection plans, seen by the BBC, state that children between the ages of one and six “must not be removed” from a grandmother’s care without prior agreement.
Sophie stopped working for a year as she became a single parent.
He said it was a way out. [she] Never expected” and left her in debt, with only Universal Credit and child benefit.
“They came to me with nothing and only the clothes on their backs,” she said, adding that the children had little belongings at home.
“I had to provide new clothes, baby bottles, new beds, bedding, everything you can think of – I had to rearrange and decorate my house, so it was suitable for the children and their needs. It was appropriate.”
She added: “I struggled to provide food and pay the bills to the point where I didn’t eat myself.”
No support.
Rhiannon Clapperton, of the charity Kinship, said: “If a social worker has asked you informally to look after a child, outside of a kinship fostering arrangement, but is also saying it is safe to send the child home. No, it is not an informal care arrangement.
“You should be assessed, supported and paid an allowance as a relative carer.”
West Midlands Police confirmed the children were removed under Section 20 of the Children Act 1989 – which requires children’s services to place children who cannot live with their parents at home. .
A spokesperson for the Quorum Children’s Legal Center told the BBC that they had seen many cases where local authorities had been proactive in placing a child in the care of a family member or friend but then transferred him to an informal, private placement. Understood management.
“This often means that carers do not receive adequate funding and support, and children do not receive the protections and support they are entitled to in ‘child care’.”
Kinship’s Make or Break report in October revealed that 47% are kinship carers. Information for financial aid Provided by their local authority as poor or very poor.
In the West Midlands, there are an estimated 15,437 children being looked after by a family member or friend.
A similar case upheld a complaint against Lancashire County Council in September.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found that the council had failed to treat the complainant’s grandson as a child in care.
If so, he would have to provide financial and other support to her and her grandson.
A spokesman for Birmingham Children’s Trust said it could not comment on individual cases but “recognised the important contribution of children’s wider family networks”.
“Staying within their family networks, if it is safe and appropriate to do so, leads to better outcomes for children,” she added.
Paranoid schizophrenia
The trust told Sophie, now 47, earlier this year she had no formal obligation to place the children in its care.
He had previously only paid her £100 to help pay for clothes.
The plan was “developed in collaboration with the mother who was still considered competent and continued to exercise her parental responsibility in making decisions regarding the children and their care,” the letter said. .
Sophie’s daughter was officially diagnosed with postnatal psychosis in April 2021 after having a C-section.
He was also later diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and did not leave the house for three years.
Sophie is adamant that the children, now aged 10 and four, should not have been classified as living with her under a family arrangement.
To try and make ends meet, she works part-time and continues to claim Universal Credit.
“The children were not allowed to return home – and now we are in a situation where nobody wants to help,” he said.
“I took them because I love them, not for the money – but the practical side of it is that I need financial support.”
*Names have been changed.
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