A SCRUTINY committee has called for a re-think on controversial cuts to foster carers’ allowances.

Earlier this month, Bradford Council’s Executive decided to reduce the allowances which are given to carers to be spent on food, clothing and other necessities for the children in their care.

Council bosses said they needed to even out a situation where foster carers got higher allowances than family-and-friends carers - but that it would be too expensive to raise the lower of these fees.

The opposition Conservatives called in the decision for scrutiny and tonight the children’s services overview and scrutiny committee debated the matter.

The meeting heard from a number of foster carers, both in person and by email. They spoke about feeling undervalued, with some saying they were considering retiring or moving to independent fostering agencies.

Deputy council leader, Councillor Val Slater, spoke about the financial pressures the Council was facing, and in particular the rising costs of caring for vulnerable children and adults.

She said: “For us, the needs of vulnerable adults and children are paramount, but as a Council we can’t go into a deficit budget.”

Cllr Slater said the amount Bradford paid in combined allowances and foster carer fees was competitive.

She said: “We have actually got four of our foster carers who get over £70,000 per annum, 27 who get £55,000 per annum and 73 who get over £38,000 per annum, for doing a difficult job, but I think we have to put that in the context of what we are looking at in the Council’s financial position and all the other decisions we have to make.”

Councillor Jackie Whiteley (Con, Wharfedale), who called in the decision, said she herself had been a foster child, so she knew the importance of the work foster carers did.

She said: “We are talking about real human beings, not closing toilets, etc. I think there are better ways of saving money in this council.”

Committee member Claire Parr said the proposed saving of around £500,000 didn’t seem a great deal when considering it was going to vulnerable children and “foster carers who give and give and give”.

She said: “It seems to me that we should be giving a little more, as opposed to taking away something.”

Another committee member, Councillor David Ward (Lib Dem, Idle and Thackley), asked whether there was a cost-neutral solution, by reducing the higher of the allowances and increasing the lower until a middle ground was found.

The committee decided to refer the decision back to the Executive to be considered again.

Chairman, Councillor Dale Smith (Con, Wharfedale) said they were requesting “further investigation” of how Bradford’s fees and allowances compared to those provided by other nearby local authorities.