Baby bond scheme hits children in care

9.40.15am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 17th Jan 2005

Councillor David Ward has criticised the Government's ' baby bond' for not providing extra help to children who are cared for by the Council.

He said,

" The Government claims that the baby bond scheme will help all children but those who need most help are being penalised.

Children in care will have no one to top up their fund. The government allows parents to add up to £1200 a year but have completely failed to give the council any help to provide this for children we look after.

If they are determined to introduce this scheme then they must give equal treatment to children who through no fault of their own cannot live with the parents,

Bradford looks after just under 200 children who are less than 5 years old and perhaps half of those would be young enough to qualify so the cost is quite small.

I have asked the Council to investigate this and report to its Corporate Parenting Panel as soon as possible.."