High Court orders Kent CC to pay grandmother same rate as foster carer to look after child

Local authorities that ask relatives to look after a child could have to pay significantly more towards their care after a landmark High Court ruling this week.

Mrs Justice Black ordered Kent County Council to pay a grandmother the same rate as a foster carer for looking after her granddaughter.

The child was looked after by her mother until December 2004, when the local authority contacted the grandmother and asked her to care for the child. The alternative was to put the girl into state care.

The girl subsequently received £63.56 a week for her care, while the average foster parent receives around £146.23 a week.

Mrs Justice Black ruled that the grandmother, who is 64, should receive the same level of support as a foster parent, as well as back payments from 2 March 2009 (because of an unexplained delay in the case coming to court). However, she also gave Kent leave to appeal.

Nigel Priestley of Huddersfield law firm Ridley & Hall, who acted for the grandmother, said: “The county council argues that they had no duty to the child even though their fingerprints were all over the case. Kent holds itself out as a model authority but it has been left with egg on its face.

“Kent put forward the radical suggestion that it had no significant financial duty to a child they had placed with a relative. They denied that she should be treated as a ‘looked-after child’. The judge rejected that argument.”

He added: “If the decision is upheld by the Court of Appeal, it is going to cost Kent a five-figure sum in legal costs and back payments. There is nothing quite like a court case to remind local authorities what they should and should not be doing.”

Priestley told Local Government Lawyer that the case could have a much wider impact beyond Kent. He said: "Across the country social services regularly place children with relatives without starting care proceedings. They are under an obligation to do, plus there is a chronic shortage of foster carers.

"Many then try and say they are simply facilitating a private arrangement - and they are under no obligation to pay. This judgement reminds them that if their fingerprints are all over the case, they have a legal duty to appropriately financially support the placement."

Lynn Chesterman, chief executive of the Grandparents’ Association, said the circumstances of the case were “all too common”.

She added: “It’s the norm for grandparents to be given no help at all. I want to see grandparents offered the same support as those who look after children in care. Too often, as in this case, they are struggling to cope financially – living on a pension bringing up children and simply not having enough money.”

A spokesman for Kent confirmed the local authority was seeking permission to appeal the ruling. He added: "Until that is resolved, it is not possible for the council to comment further."