Offering the most competitive package in London, our foster carers can now earn up to £1,500 per week and receive a 25 per cent reduction in council tax when looking after a child in care.
This also includes £1,000 off utility bills, a winter fuel allowance and a family Platinum Merlin pass. This equates to an annual salary of up to £72,000.
Hillingdon is the second largest of the 32 London boroughs, bordering Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire, and is home to Heathrow Airport and Brunel University, London. Rated by Ofsted as 'outstanding', our experienced and dedicated fostering team provides practical and emotional support, plus all the necessary training and mentoring needed, to all our foster carers throughout their journey.
With a national shortage of foster carers, the council is continuing to recruit its own dedicated carers to support 340 children in its care and provide loving and stable homes. Last May, we launched our generous payment and benefits package to alleviate some of the financial pressures faced by carers and ensure they are supported.
We are now seeing the results of all the hard work put into developing our innovative support package with the recruitment of our first foster carers. This marks a significant step in our ongoing efforts to create thriving, healthy households that can provide a safe and nurturing home to children in care.
It's particularly encouraging to see that the five newly recruited households comprise a mix of new carers, and those who have transferred from independent fostering agencies. This shows that our offer is appealing not only to those considering fostering for the first time, but individuals and families who are attracted to the prospect of fostering with their local council with the wide range of support on offer.
What we've also seen from carers joining us is how much they appreciate the training and support our social workers provide. Having a competitive financial package is, of course, hugely beneficial, but our dedicated fostering team is on hand to provide the guidance and reassurance they need through every step of the approvals process and beyond once they join us.
Several more carers are currently in the approval process and are set to join the council between now and August, and improving the recruitment and retention of foster carers contributes to cost savings to the council of £3.9m million earmarked for 2025/26.
One of our newest foster carers is Parveen Khan, 52, who moved to Hillingdon in 2023 and became a council foster carer in March this year after transferring from an independent fostering agency based in Essex.
We are delighted to welcome our fantastic new foster carers to Hillingdon and look forward to the positive impact they will have on the lives of children in need by providing stable, nurturing and loving homes.
She praised the new package, saying it would be beneficial particularly with the rising cost of living, and said the move would allow her to attend more training and access support groups in person.
In addition to new carers joining our fostering service, it's been fantastic to see colleagues from within the council expressing an interest in fostering. One of our own social workers, Lydia Blake, 35, and her husband Jonathan, 37, began fostering their first child, a 15-year-old girl, in November. The couple, who have three daughters aged five, seven and nine, said their foster child has enriched their lives.
We are delighted to welcome our fantastic new foster carers to Hillingdon and look forward to the positive impact they will have on the lives of children in need by providing stable, nurturing and loving homes.
We know that fostering can have a financial impact on households and our offer recognises that, and is designed to help with costs and be, in some cases, the equivalent of a replacement income. We hope it will encourage even more people to come forward and find out more about fostering in the borough.
For more information about fostering for Hillingdon, visit www.hillingdon.gov.uk/fostering
Julie Kelly is Hillingdon LBC's corporate director of children's services
