Towards a Fee-Paid Fostering Service

Love and money: payment, motivation and the fostering task

“…There was however, a minority view that enhanced payments could make a difference, especially where financial help could be translated into practical support (MacLean 1989).…”

“…This shift has been mirrored within writing and research on foster care where greater attention has been given to payment issues (compare for example Parker 1966, George 1970 and Adamson 1973, with Sellick 1992 and Triseliotis et al 1995, 2000). However, except for accounts of the early professional schemes (Hazel 1981; Shaw & Hipgrave 1983; MacLean 1989), this coverage has remained limited in important respects, with relatively little depth of analysis and fairly circumscribed treatment of issues such as carers’ satisfaction with payments, or views on professionalization. These limitations also apply to several small scale studies that have looked at the question of foster care as ‘vocation or job?’ (Smith 1988; Robinson 1991; Rhodes 1993) and more specifically at links between payment and recruitment/retention (Chamberlain et al 1992; Coffin 1993).…”

“…Yet this view remains contentious, clashing as it does with the long-established idea of foster care as a voluntary activity rooted in altruism (Berridge 1997;Triseliotis et al 2000).There is little doubt that the professionalizing view has gained ground gradually over recent decades, as the (perceived) challenges of fostering have increased, as alternative 'careers' have opened up for married women and acceptance of (albeit modest) 'payment to care' has grown (Corrick 1999;Kelly & Gilligan 2000).This shift has been mirrored within writing and research on foster care where greater attention has been given to payment issues (compare for example Parker 1966, George 1970and Adamson 1973, with Sellick 1992and Triseliotis et al 1995, 2000. However, except for accounts of the early professional schemes (Hazel 1981;Shaw & Hipgrave 1983;MacLean 1989), this coverage has remained limited in important respects, with relatively little depth of analysis and fairly circumscribed treatment of issues such as carers' satisfaction with payments, or views on professionalization. These limitations also apply to several small scale studies that have looked at the question of foster care as 'vocation or job?'…”