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Why not go to a couple of information evenings? I suspect an IFA will be less likely to work for you cos of your daughter's age; IFA placements tend to be harder to place older kids or groups. Id say you'd be looking at pre-schoolers, if you have a big enough spare room, siblings. £120 a week is exceptionally low, when I stopped fostering 10 years ago I was getting just over £200pw per child under 7. That was an LA. So for 2 little kids you could probably expect around £450-500pw with an LA. Dont forget its certainly tax free at that level of payment but all the costs for the children have to come out of that. The info evenings will help you think about committments in fostering and how they will impact on your DD.

When we enquired about fostering we discovered two things. One was a reluctance to take us on as they said that they wanted our second adopted child to remain as the youngest child in the family ( not something we were told when he was placed) and they weren't keen on any even younger ones , joining the household. But that might have just been us, and our child whom they placed here. They are probably correct about his needs. Also, they got very sniffy when we indicated that we needed to earn enough to get by on ( not talking big bucks here, just a reassurance we wouldn't have to wait too long between placements. They basically said we couldn't depend on any particular income as it depends when FC are needed, which is correct of course. . They pretty much implied we needed to be well enough off not to " need" the foster money. Most of the fosterers I know here are either women with a full time working partner and a large council house, or older couples with mortgage paid off, basically people who can manage without the extra. Maybe a big city LA might be more confident of the demand for fosterers and could give greater reassurance on the income front. I suppose every LA is different and you can only ask and see what they say.

Agree with Pingu, La try to use their own pool of carers than an independent agency as it's cheaper. Apparently , the children placed by independent agencies can be more difficult. you shouldn't rely on fostering as an income, it is not dependable and also it can be taken from you at a moments notice. if an allegation is made and the child is removed, It can take weeks for an allegation to be investigated, so that is weeks without income. If the police are involved, then your lo could go to school as normal, but without your knowledge, she Will be taken out of class by sw or police and interviewed about what s been alleged, you have no control over this, why would you put your lo in this position? Even if taking a baby to foster, a baby can't make an allegation, but it's mother can, it's gran parents can. You don't mention but I will assume your lo is doing away just fine, so why would you jeopardise that? It might take her back to when she was in fc, the comings and goings unsettling her,further loss when a child leaves, the potential to be a victim. Also think about if a foster child is to be rehabilitated back home, so be prepared for questions like " why can't I stay with my mum? If a rehab takes place the birth parents may need to collect child from your home, how do you protect lo from that? Your home is your lo safe place, will that change? Also, the intrusion, sw in your life, in your home, dictating what you can and can't do, Being at sw beck and call, Keeping daily diaries. Meetings to arrange meetings, risk assessments, So an example, you, your lo and foster child are in the park, lo runs over to a tree that's easy to climb, fc follows, but fc CANNOT climb that tree as you have not done a risk assessment. What I have learnt from being on this forum is that adoption, even ones that are going well, always have a degree of fragility and if yours is going well, I personally wouldnt risk it. At the moment, your question is about the finance. You need to also question the impact fostering wil potentially have on your lo, your lifestyle and your family .

I am doing foster to adopt with a baby and the foster carer allowance is around £140 per week. It is certainly not a salary and probably that's why it's called an allowance as it's really just to pay for the child's needs rather than paying you a wage. And of course I do not receive child benefit during this time. I really don't know how people do it for a living!

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and advice Chirpy especially I found your comments really useful. Yes I should have perhaps been a bit clearer actually our main concern is our ad and the impact on her but practically finances ..... I think we will go to a few info evenings, I’m going to get in touch with our LA we live in a big city and say what they have to say, we went through them for lo adoption. One of my main motivation actually came from seeing what my daughters amazing FC did for her at the time she needed safe adults the most - perhaps I should just concentrate on her, I’m well aware there may be future probs - everything been good so far but she has difficult stuff to face as she gets older as I’m sure all adopted children do and she’s already started asking questions which I try to answer honestly with love and sensitivity. Thanks again everyone for your experience and valuable thoughts

I wonder Westgold if you are getting the boarding out and expenses element of fostering allowances but not the recompense (reward element). Often kinship carers dont get the recompense element.

my LA has a boarding out allowance only for all FCs in the first year until the mandatory portfolio of core training is complete, so F2A families would not get the additional allowances. the additional allowances are paid according to specific training pathways, top whack is around £110 a week on top of the basic child allowances, lowest rate around £30 a week. I get around £230 per week per child (under 5) all in. even with 2 children in placement that's a little under £24,000 a year assuming two full time placements for 52 weeks a year. the reality though is that there are gaps between placements and it is rare to get a full year of two children so my 'income' is usually nearer 20,000 with 2 children in placement. the 'income' element of the £24,000 is around £11,000 but again it is rare I get a full year of 52 weeks with two children in placement. probably only happened for one year in the 10 years I have been with this LA. and, as others have said, children can come and go at short notice. there is not a guaranteed 'supply' of children for fostering any more than there is for adoption and the availability of placements is very much at the mercy of the prevailing safeguarding climate. after baby P I was full to busting for several years. then came a baby 'famine' for several more years and now we seem to be back to struggling to find carers for babies, great for baby carers, not for LA's, and also means we are being asked to take on more than we are approved for at times. there is never a shortage of teens though for some reason! though a shortage of teen carers persists.