Nottinghamshire County Council will now spend more than £200,000 extra each year on weekly allowances for carers looking after child relatives.

The 3.55 per cent rise has been revealed in a document released by the authority, stating the decision was taken on August 22 to implement the increase for the 2025/26 financial year.

In 2024/25, the council agreed an increase in fostering payments to match Derby City Council’s rates but this had an impact on the payments given to Nottinghamshire’s kinship carers.

Kinship carers are relatives, family friends or other people with a pre-existing relationship with a child who take over caring for them if the child cannot be cared for by their parents due to factors such as illness, death or neglect. They receive weekly allowance payments by local authorities to help cover the essentials when looking after children.

Nottinghamshire County Council will now spend more than £200,000 extra each year on weekly allowances for carers looking after child relatives

placeholder image — Nottinghamshire County Council will now spend more than £200,000 extra each year on weekly allowances for carers looking after child relatives

The authority is set to increase this payment by 3.55 per cent – the government recommendation – which is an estimated overall increased cost of £235,292 in 2025/26 for the council compared to 2024/25.

The biggest payment increase is for the weekly payments for kinship carers looking after children aged 16 to 18, where this will rise £9 from £249 in 2024/25 to £258 in 2025/26.

The document states the increase will help Nottinghamshire children requiring care to “live within their birth families” and reduce the number of children needing to be cared for by the local authority – these children are called ‘looked after’ children.

It also says there is a “level of dissatisfaction” amongst kinship carers in the county that their weekly payments do not match other authorities or are not aligned with the county’s fostering payments.

“There is a risk that existing kinship carers may withdraw their care arrangements if payments are not increased at least in-line with the increase of 3.55 per cent,” the paper continues.

Additional costs are faced by kinship carers such as food and school uniforms, where some carers “struggle” to afford these essential items.

The council says the additional cost from the rise will be covered by the existing kinship carer payment budget which sits at £6,937,108. Any shortfall is “likely to be low” and can be taken from an underspend in the adoption financial support team.