Robert Tapsfield, chief executive of the Fostering Network, said theorganisation would be monitoring the situation carefully to see ifEngland's councils are paying the minimum allowance, which came intoeffect on 1 April.
He told Children Now an area they will be keeping a close eye on ispayments to kinship carers. "The current allowance means all fostercarers, whether they are relatives or strangers, should receive afostering allowance paid by the local authority, but we know there arestill kinship foster carers being treated differently.
"The courts have ruled that kinship carers must be treated the same asother foster carers, so local authorities can't discriminate againstthem. But we still hear examples where kinship foster carers arediscriminated against. It's important to make sure these new allowancesapply to everyone and not just external foster carers," he added.
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