A recent finding of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has provided a helpful reminder for councils of their duties towards friends and family foster carers.
The case involved a boy whose grandmother became his primary carer after Greenwich Council raised concerns about his mother's ability to look after him. Greenwich said it would start care proceedings if she did not take on parental responsibility for the boy, but it failed to tell her about the financial assistance that might be available, despite her repeated requests for financial help over the next few years.
These calls for help included telling the local authority that she had no carpets or furniture, was sleeping on a mattress on the floor, could not afford heating in the winter and had got into debt through borrowing.
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