Thursday June 25th 2026
Photo by Matt Silveira
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Drew Sandelands
Foster carers in Glasgow will receive an extra £100 per week as part of efforts to address recruitment struggles which are leading to “unsustainable” spend on external agencies.
A £2,000 referral fee and a retention payment have also been agreed by the city’s health and social care partnership (HSCP).
It comes amid a national shortage of foster carers and has been approved after Glasgow’s fees had “fallen behind other authorities”.
Members of the city’s integration joint board (IJB) — which oversees the HSCP — were told the current payments had made people “step back” from becoming foster carers.
Declining numbers of carers has led to more money being spent on fostering agencies, with children sometimes placed outside the city.
Based on current trends, it is estimated around 580 foster placements per year will be needed over the next five years, but demand is exceeding supply in Glasgow.
The number of fostering households fell from 421 in 2019/20 to 298 in 2025/26 and has been projected to drop to 242 by 2029/30. In addition, 89% of current carers are over 50 years old.
It is hoped the extra investment — estimated at £1.95m per year — will help to meet a target of 53 new carers over the next four years.
In 2025/26, £10.6m was spent on purchased foster care and an IJB report stated the “continued shift towards externally purchased provision is financially unsustainable”.
The changes will mean the weekly fostering fee in Glasgow rises from £165 to £265, and will now be reviewed annually. In Edinburgh, fees vary from £307.50 to £490.
Foster carers in West Dunbartonshire get between £125 and £175 per week while in East Dunbartonshire, they receive £200. There is a £350 fee in Inverclyde, £330 in Renfrewshire and carers in East Renfrewshire get between £217 and £311.
The £2,000 incentive for foster carers who refer a friend will be capped at a total spend of £30,000 per year. A retention payment of one extra week of fees, paid on successful conclusion of an annual review, was also approved.
Liz Simpson, head of children’s services at the HSCP, told the IJB: “We’ve been really struggling to recruit carers, partly because of the money.
“There is a national crisis in terms of the recruitment of foster carers but the fact that we have fallen behind other authorities in terms of the payments that we make hasn’t helped our recruitment.
“We get a lot of enquiries every year but once they hear the payments, they step back from becoming foster carers.”
She added: “The consequence of the reducing number of foster carers has meant that we have to seek placements from purchased fostering agencies, which is an increased cost and sometimes outwith Glasgow.”
Cllr Chris Cunningham, SNP, the council’s health and care convener, and chair of the IJB, said: “There is a worrying rise in the number of babies and young children coming through the system and we struggle to place them within our own fostering service.
“This leads to the use of external agencies which is not the preferred option due to high costs and less positive outcomes for children.
“We must think ahead and factor in the financial challenges the Glasgow HSCP face if we don’t act now. The projected cost without investment or recruitment of foster carers is set to be around £10.5m over the next few years.
“That is simply not sustainable. Anything at all we can do to help improve the situation must be done and acted upon.”
Board member Graham Haddock asked whether the £100 uplift would be enough, given the “competitive environment”.
Duncan Black, chief finance officer for the HSCP, said: “This was a balance between a level that we think will have an impact and what we can accommodate, certainly in the first financial year.
“We will keep a close eye on it during the year and we will do a full review as part of the budget process for next year.”
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