‘I have become penniless because of the adoption of my grandchildren’

Sophie* didn’t hesitate when her two grandchildren needed urgent care after their mother’s mental health deteriorated.

She says she has been pushed to the brink of poverty after almost four years of being his main carer – but without any financial support.

Despite planning to say the children “should not be removed” from Sophie’s care, Birmingham Children’s Trust classified the placement as a family arrangement.

“I’ve been left in a situation where I can’t afford the children, so I’m struggling – but I can’t afford to put them in a care home,” she said.

Their situation is mirrored across England and Wales, where thousands of family members are struggling to look after their young relatives financially because there is no specific allowance they can apply for, a charity said.

Kinship carers, also known as family and friends carers, are a private arrangement between a parent and a relative, friend, or it may arise through the involvement of children’s services.

a kinship nutritious Carership is when a family or friend carer is assessed to look after a child on behalf of children’s services.

The local authority shares parental rights with the parent – but the carer receives a regular foster care allowance.

Sophie is fighting for recognition as a kinship foster carer, but so far Birmingham Children’s Trust has refused to recognize her.

Sophie’s daughter began suffering from postpartum psychosis after the birth of her second child, and in December 2020, police temporarily removed both children from her care.

The children lived with their aunt and grandmother for two weeks before social workers decided they would return home.

But by February 2021, his mother’s condition worsened, causing her to call 999 in distress and request her son and daughter be removed from the home for their safety.

A referral was made to social services, who were aware of the family, and a social worker contacted Sophie asking if she could look after the children.

“I agreed to take care of both of them overnight, but I didn’t confirm a long-term arrangement because I knew my life would change,” she said.

“But when I saw them sleeping through the night, I knew I couldn’t leave them.”

The trust’s child protection plans, seen by the BBC, state that children aged between one and six at the time “should not be removed” from a grandmother’s care without prior consent.

Sophie stopped working for a year after becoming a single parent.

She said it was “a path she had never imagined” and left her deeply in debt, supported only by Universal Credit and child benefit.

“They came to me with nothing and only the clothes on their backs,” she said, while the children had very few belongings at home.

“I had to provide new clothes, baby bottles, new bedding, bedding, everything you can think of – I also had to reorganize and decorate my home so it was suitable for the children and their needs.”

She added, “I struggled to provide food and pay the bills to the point where I wouldn’t even eat food myself.”

Rhiannon Clapperton, of the charity Kinship, said: “If a social worker has asked you to look after a child informally outside the kinship foster care arrangement, but is also saying it is not safe to send the child home, So it is not an informal care arrangement.

“As a kinship foster carer you should be valued, supported and given allowances.”

West Midlands Police confirmed that the children had been removed under Section 20 of the Children Act 1989 – which requires children’s services to provide homes to children who cannot live with their parents.

A spokesperson for Coram Children’s Legal Center told the BBC that they had seen many cases where local authorities were actively involved in placing a child in the care of a family member or friend, but then treated it as an informal, private arrangement .

“This often means that carers do not receive adequate financial support and assistance, and children do not receive the protection and support they are entitled to as ‘looked after children’,” she said.

Kinship’s make or break report in October revealed that 47% of people who care about Kinship give it a rating of Financial Aid Information Provided as poor or very poor by their local authority.

In the West Midlands, an estimated 15,437 children are being looked after by a family member or friend.

A complaint against Lancashire County Council was upheld in a similar case in September.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found that the council failed to treat the complainant’s grandson as a child in care.

If this were the case, he would have to provide financial and other support to her and her grandchildren.

A spokesperson for Birmingham Children’s Trust said they could not comment on individual cases but that they “recognise the important contribution played by children’s wider family networks”.

“Staying within their family networks, if it is safe and appropriate to do so, leads to better outcomes for children,” she said.

The trust told Sophie, now 47, earlier this year that it had no formal responsibility for the children in its care.

It had previously only given her a lump sum payment of £100 to help pay for clothes.

One letter said the plan was “drawn up in collaboration with the mother, who was still considered to have capacity and was still exercising her parental responsibilities in making decisions about the children and their care”.

Sophie’s daughter was officially diagnosed with postpartum psychosis after having a section in April 2021.

She was later diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and has not left home for three years.

Sophie is adamant that the children, now aged 10 and four, should not be classed as living with her under family arrangements.

To try to make ends meet, she works part-time and continues to claim Universal Credit.

“The children were not allowed to return home – and now we are in a situation where no one wants to help,” he said.

“I took them because I love them so much, not for the money – but the practical side of it is that I need financial help.”

*Names have been changed

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