Lesley Riddoch: A noble and welcome pledge – shame they haven't delivered

Published on Sunday 5 October 2008 22:44

IF IMITATION is the sincerest form of flattery, Alex Salmond might well look smug. The UK conference season has drawn to a close, with Labour and the Tories borrowing SNP policy like there's no tomorrow.

Tory shadow chancellor George Osborne wowed delegates with the promise of a council-tax freeze and Gordon Brown finally bounced in the right direction by promising to phase out prescription charges. Sorry, chaps: it may not have reached the giddy heights of network political commentators yet, but they have both been done. And it might be prudent to acknowledge the fact – not least because England might learn from Scotland's difficulties in making these policies work.

In Scotland, the council-tax freeze came with an essential accessory – the concordat between Holyrood and local councils. And it's fast become a better disappearing act than Houdini. Class sizes, free school meals, personal care – you name it, SNP ministers say they've paid for it, councils say they haven't: even when the councils' representative body, Cosla, says they have.

Take the first policy Labour "borrowed", in March: the introduction of a kinship carers' allowance to pay family members and friends (mostly grannies) for taking in children (mostly the offspring of their drug-using children) who would otherwise be placed in care.

In December 2007, the SNP government announced there would be parity between foster and kinship carers so grannies would not be left penniless simply because they volunteer to become parents again.

It looked like an admirable outbreak of common sense by the Scottish Government, because children placed in care walk into a grim set of statistics – they are far more likely to be involved in crime, drugs, homelessness and unemployment and certain to cost the state between 1,000 and 3,000 a week for the duration of their stay. With an estimated 10,000 children living with grannies and kinship carers, that is saving the state a whopping 500 million a year. It's a financial, emotional saving well worth the expenditure of a few million quid to noble grandparents, usually living on the state pension in some of Scotland's most deprived neighbourhoods. Prudent, fair, ground-breaking. Hooray!

Sure enough, a few months later, Harriet Harman pledged to introduce a similar system of payments for England, as if it were a brand new idea. The only snag is, the payments haven't happened – and it seems the betrayal of kinship carers in Scotland is down to the concordat with councils and the naivety of civil servants unaware of the morass of legal complexity that children's minister Adam Ingram's simple commitment would provoke.

Put simply, the minister said he could see no reason why the cash wouldn't be rolling from April this year and his government insists the grandparent cash is in the money already given to councils. That time commitment was given before the concordat was signed. Now, councils say they haven't been given enough cash – and may pay something (not full parity) by 2011. Glasgow council estimates kinship care payments will cost 5 million this year – it was given only 750,000. Just to join in, the Westminster government says that if kinship care allowances are ever paid, they will be means-tested – so grannies claiming them will lose an equal amount from other benefits, such as housing, council tax and family tax credits.

It's priceless. Politicians from Westminster, Holyrood and local government fall over themselves to praise selfless grandparents who opt to parent all over again, yet can't work together to make an allowance anything less than a minefield to claim.

And it's not just cash that's been dangled before kinship carers and snatched away. It's control. For a granny with just a supervision order from the Children's Panel, it can be impossible to have the child operated on or even taken to the dentist, because only the parent can authorise the use of anaesthetic. Equally, some "looked after" children haven't been on holiday for years because only their natural parents can get them a passport. And yet if the grannies seek full legal rights with a court order (often at considerable expense), they stop being considered for financial help because the child is not being "looked after" any more. They have become part of the family. End of story. End of any financial obligation by the state or the council.

Carers also report that social work departments and children's hearings are removing supervision orders because children are "thriving". This again removes the legal "looked after" status and the chance of financial support. But kids no longer "looked after" still need clothes, food and maybe a holiday. And yet, if and when the kinship payments eventually roll, the grannies prepared to take the greatest legal responsibility will be rewarded with…absolutely nothing.

A Scottish Kinship Care Network has been set up by angry carers to get the support they were promised. Many were loath to place a price on care because it appeared mean and grasping, and they weren't primarily motivated by money at all. Indeed, the grannies don't want the 100 per week fee that is paid to foster carers. They just want the same 120-190 a week allowance for food and basics.

Is that too much to ask for?

Surely, it is their right, unless MSPs and councillors believe grannies should go back to work to support children for whom they are not legally responsible.

If you're still with me – congratulations. It looks like most councillors, citizens advice staff, civil servants and politicians have given up. Once again, the courts may have to decide it. Two London boroughs have just paid out more than 100,000 to settle claims by two kinship carers – and the Scots are set to follow.

A sorry end to a great political pledge. Copycats beware.

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