Council pays £30k to foster carer who claims she wasn’t told of child’s troubled and violent nature

Martin Shipton

A council has admitted that it underpaid a foster carer by more than £30,000 by failing to take account of the seriously troubled nature of the child she looked after.

The carer claims council officials misled her into believing that the boy was not troubled when she agreed to take responsibility for him.

Nation.Cymru reported in January 2025 how Bridgend’s social services department had apologised unreservedly to the carer and her partner for mishandling a false allegation of assault made against her by the boy.

The council also accepted recommendations made by an independent investigator brought in to look at detailed complaints made by the foster carer, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Complaints

The investigator upheld a series of complaints made by the carer, including that there was a lack of support from Bridgend Social Services for her, her partner and the boy who made the false allegation.

Now, following a further complaint from the carer, the department has accepted she was underpaid.

In a letter to her, Claire Marchant, Bridgend’s corporate director of social services and wellbeing, stated: “[Following] an extensive review of our involvement with yourself and [the named child] , we have identified that further consideration to the challenges you were facing should have been highlighted and escalated to senior management to provide you with enhanced financial support. On reviewing records, we believe from September 3 2018, you should have been provided with enhanced payments due to the increasing complexity of [his] needs at that time.

“This decision is based on the escalation of challenging behaviour that you were managing at home, incidents within school, a statement of educational needs being in place and additional 1:1 support being provided in the school environment.

“As you will be aware, following the Stage 2 complaint, the local authority continues to undertake reviews and change our approach to supporting foster carers through our fostering service. This includes changes to how we determine enhanced and complex need payments to foster carers.

“The amount that you will receive is £30,229.25 and this will be within your bank account by the end of this week.”

‘Complex needs’

The carer responded: “I accept this payment as an interim payment, because of the undeniable fact that [the boy’s] complex needs did not suddenly begin on September 3 2018. Clearly, he’s always had them and it’s also clear the local authority knew this and for whatever reasons, did not disclose it.

“I request that the process itself is fully investigated and addressed to prevent future reoccurrence. When placed with us in January 2016, [the boy] immediately displayed worrying behaviours and was violent towards me, his sister and other visitors to our home, all of which are well documented.

“Social Services were provided with the fullest information about this child’s behaviour along with photographs of the injuries sustained by myself and [his sister], not to mention injuries to some of my grandchildren. These are just some examples of the challenging behaviour and outcomes we were dealing with since the day he arrived. I still have some photos if you want to see them.”

Cognitive development

The carer added: “With respect, the local authority had more than sufficient evidence available to them for anyone to reasonably conclude they were actually fully aware of these matters.

“As an example, in 2015 prior to [the boy] being taken into care, he was assessed over several weeks by a senior specialist social worker with an outcome confirming that although his care within the home environment was excellent, there were concerns about his cognitive development that was delayed along with speech and language concerns. There was a list of issues that the social worker identified and these were recorded meticulously. I can provide this evidence and name the social worker that undertook and recorded these assessments.

“I have a copy of the report so I am well aware that the children were both assessed prior to being taken into care and being placed with us. Therefore, the officer that asked us to have them in January 2016 was not truthful when he told us that both children were, in his words, ‘normal toddlers without any conditions’. The authority was completely aware that this was not the case and concerns had already been highlighted.

“A requirement of all social workers to hold onto their registration with Social Care Wales is openness and to be truthful. If a social worker does not meet the requirements of their registration they cannot practice. In total I listed 16 social workers that have not met those requirements.

“Furthermore, the senior social worker on behalf of the authority responded to these issues, sourced a specialist nursery school, enrolled [the boy] into it, and the authority paid for 50% of the fee incurred. No responsible authority is going to do this and incur the associated costs involved (paid from the public purse) unless there was a clearly identified need – which of course there was.

“I have the documented evidence of this to include correspondence from the nursery manager and invoices for the nursery fees and who was liable for the fees.

“Within two weeks of being placed with us, we had suffered and were reporting the challenges faced with managing [the boy], including protecting ourselves against his attacks and also protecting to the best of our ability his attacks on his sister which were happening several times on a daily basis. No-one listened, but the reports were made and concerns highlighted.

“It is grossly unfair to any child when it is placed with a foster carer, to not be honest about challenges that are present because it means the foster carer is unaware of any issues and thus unable to do their utmost to meet the challenges they present. Bridgend County Borough Council broke the terms and conditions of the contract and failed in a duty of care to the children and to us.”

‘Greater support’

A council spokesman said: “While we are unable to discuss individual cases in detail for reasons of confidentiality, we have already apologised to the foster carers who undertook this specific placement and have agreed that they should have received greater support and financial assistance. They have since been paid an appropriate sum to reflect this.

“We value and respect all of our local foster carers and the important work that they do, and are fully committed towards providing them with the training and ongoing support necessary for ensuring that children and young people can receive the best care possible.

“Fostering remains a hugely rewarding experience, and anyone who is interested in finding out more can do so by visiting the Foster Wales Bridgend website.”