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Family Budgets and Public Money: Spending Fostering Payments

Kirton, Derek (2001) Family Budgets and Public Money: Spending Fostering Payments. Child and Family Social Work, 6 (4). pp. 305-314. (doi:10.1046/j.1365-2206.2001.00209.x) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:386)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2206.2001.00209.x

Abstract

In this second of two papers based on a study of payment issues within foster care, the focus is on expenditure. It is argued that the hybrid public/private nature of fostering gives rise to contradictory pressures for carers, including the status of maintenance payments as both part of family budgets and a form of delegated public expenditure. For example, carers are required in principle both to spend fixed amounts upon foster children and to treat them in like fashion to their own children. In this paper, the issue of ‘like treatment’ is explored, along with the significance of payment for ‘children who foster’ and for relationships between carers and foster children. Also examined are the challenges presented by differences between carers’ material circumstances and those of birth families, especially when reunification is planned. Overall, the paper seeks to show how the handling of expenditure becomes closely entwined with inter-personal dynamics within foster care.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1046/j.1365-2206.2001.00209.x
Uncontrolled keywords: birth families; children who foster; expenditure of allowances; foster care; foster children
Subjects: H Social Sciences
H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Depositing User: Samantha Osborne
Date Deposited: 19 Dec 2007 18:12 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 09:39 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/386 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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