Finance Provider Portal User Guide for our Carers

Care Package Line Items (CPLI) – these are the service or cost provisions that our Finance Officers add in our finance system. The CPLI triggers the payment in our finance system. These provisions will be for allowances we pay, fees, expense claims and so forth.
The portal therefore allows you to view all the children you are caring for and the payments associated with each child. The information you see in the portal is a direct copy of what is in our finance system. This screen confirms that we have set up your payments.

^{A screenshot of the Care package line item section.}

On the screen you will see the following:

SSRef – this is the Child’s or Young Person’s reference number, our identifier
Client – the name of the Child or Young Person
Service – this would be you, the carer
Service Level – this will relate to what the payment is for, you can filter by service level as well
Start Date – when the service or payment has been commissioned to start
End Date – if applicable
Cost – the weekly or one-off payment amount
Care Package Ref – unique ID for that CPLI, automatically generated by our finance system
Authorised – this shows if the CPLI has been authorised (in our finance system) and not still a draft provision

By default, the system will only show active or open CPLIs, so if you want to view historical CPLIs, ensure you tick the Include Historical box.

For the skill fee payment, you will see a service level description of:

Skill Fee – 1^st Child – if it’s the first or only child placed with you
Skill Fee – Additional Child – if it’s a second (third, fourth etc) child placed with you

Where a carer has a vacancy, BCFT will pay a retainer fee for up to 12 weeks. The first 6 weeks will be at the full rate, matching the skill fee that was paid for the child prior to the vacancy. After 6 weeks, if the carer still has a vacancy, BCFT will pay a retainer fee – but at half the original rate. So, you would see the following service level descriptions respectively:

Retainer Fee – 1st Child 100%
Retainer Fee – 1st Child 50%
Retainer Fee – Additional Child 100%
Retainer Fee – Additional Child 50%

You can find more detail about current rates for fees and allowances here: Bradford Foster Carer Handbook I Fees and Allowances.

All other service levels in this screen will likely cover the following payment types:

Allowances
Expenses
Other Ad-hoc Payments

Expense Claims

^{Icon for one-off claims}

You can raise claims for expenses incurred as per our fostering guidelines. The One-Off Claims icon allows you to raise an expense claim, which will be reviewed by the team. If approved, you should see the expense reimbursed in the next available pay run.

You can make reasonable claims for:

Travel Expenses: the weekly allowance we pay to foster carers includes an element for travel. We expect that you will budget from the child’s allowance to cover any normal travel costs such as going to and from school, family time and leisure activities. Only exceptional travel expenses will be paid for by the fostering service. This will be at a set rate per mile, minus the mileage amount from the weekly allowance.

Educational Trips: the fostering service will pay for a maximum of two educational school trips abroad for Children in Care aged between the age of 9 and 16. These must have been discussed with your supervising social worker and agreed by the child’s social worker. Agreement for payment of the trip (up to maximum amount of £800) must be authorised by the fostering team manager.

Equipment and Furniture: All purchases must be made through your supervising social worker. We recommend companies Maverick and BabyCare to purchase furniture, and we use their prices as our reference.

Additional Clothing Allowance: If a child arrives on an emergency placement, you may need extra money to buy clothes. Please discuss this with your supervising social worker first. School uniforms should be budgeted for out of the weekly allowance that you receive.

You must provide evidence of any expenses, otherwise your claim may be rejected. We also reserve the right to limit the amount that can be claimed for each listed item. As a result, you may notice that only a portion of your claim has been approved.

Social Worker Approval

You don’t necessarily need to request permission for every item you are claiming for unless:

you are making multiple claims for the same thing in quick succession, in which case get social worker approval and add this detail in your claim
you want to claim for something that is more expensive than our limit and you believe there is a valid reason for this, in which case get social worker approval and add this detail in your claim
it is for a large amount (usually applies to education trips, home adaptations, accommodation etc)

To raise a claim, click on the New Claim button on the left:

Then click on the Add New Client Item button on the right:

*^{Blue button for adding a new client item}*

This will bring up a form:

Form for a one-off claim. — *^{Form for a one-off claim}*

Description: this box is free text. Please enter as much detail as possible about the claim, so that claim is not held up.
Service Level: this will be a dropdown list of items you can reasonably claim for.
Client: select the child or young person the claim relates to.
Quantity: set this to 1, unless it is for mileage, in that case set it to the number of miles you are claiming for.
Unit Cost: enter the amount you are claiming for. For mileage, it should pre-populate to our fixed rate of 0.38p per mile.
Attachment: you must attach any evidence you have of this expense such as receipts, invoices, order confirmation emails etc. Where items have been purchased second hand and no formal receipt is available – please try to evidence in a practical manner. For example: Facebook Marketplace – a screenshot of the transaction exchange.

Then click the Create button:

You will see your claim listed. However, it is still only there as a draft, you can still edit or remove the claim:

To finally submit the claim, click on the Submit Claim button at the top:

Blue button to submit claim — *^{Orange button to submit claim}*

On the left-hand side, you will see your claims, and their status:

One-off claims created with hyperlinks — *^{One-one claims created with hyperlinks}*

The status will change when the Fostering Team have either accepted or rejected the claim. You will be able to see the outcome of the claim here

If you click on a claim, from the left, you will be able to see any notes from the Fostering Team as to:

why the original claim amount has changed
why a claim may have been rejected

Hover over the Yes hyperlink, to view the note or click on the View Client Items link:

*^{Information when hovering over a hyperlink}*

*^{A screenshot of text within a form.}*

Additional Information Requested

If you have not supplied evidence or given enough information for the Fostering Finance Team to process the claim – they will add a note at the top of your claim requesting the detail they require.

In order to respond – please click on the Actions icon on the homepage and create a new action using the category: Expense Claim Query. Within the action you can provide the detail as well as add attachments.

Multiple Attachments on a Claim

Typically, you can attach one document per claim. However, we understand that with some claims, particularly mileage, you will need to upload your log (CC89 – Mileage) and a receipt(s). You may find it useful to watch the Expense Claims (Advance) video on how to manage this within the Provider Portal.

Raise the claim as you would normally, add the full amount you are claiming for and attach the first document – for example the CC89 – Mileage log:

Do not submit just yet. Then within the same claim, click on the Add New Client Item button again

Screenshot of the button required to add a new item

This will bring up a new form. In the description, indicate this is for the second attachment. Enter 0 in the quantity (and if applicable 0 in the unit cost – where it is not for mileage). Attach the second document:

Repeat the steps if you continue to have further attachments. It will look something like this:

Screenshot of how multiple claims will look on the screen

Then click on the submit claim button at the top of the screen.

Scheduled Payments

^{Scheduled payments icon}

This screen will give you total payments per child or young person within a set payment period – both payments which have already been made and any awaiting payment on the next pay run.
You would need to select the payment period of interest from the left; it will select the current financial year by default:

*^{A screenshot of a scheduled payment, annotated with notes.}*

If you scroll to the bottom of the page there is a button to download a remittance advice report in PDF format:

^{Screenshot Screenshot of a button to generate a reportof a button to generate a report}

Our finance officers may add remittance notes, if it helps to explain certain payment items or payment adjustments. You can see these notes at the top of the screen:

A screenshot of notes at the top of the screen. — ^{^{Screenshot Screenshot of a button to generate a reportof a button to generate a report}}

Actions

^{Actions and Change Request icon}

This section allows our finance team and you – to raise queries and exchange information.

Under the Action heading – you will have a New Action button. Click on this to raise a new query or to send us information:

*^{Screenshot of action screen, with blue buttons.}*

This will produce the following form. Most of the fields will be dropdown lists that you need to select from:

A screenshot of a form. — *^{A screenshot of a form}*

Type: select the type of query it is from the defined list.
Related To: should be set to client. If the query is not specific to a child or young person, select Service instead.

A screenshot of a section of a form. — *^{A screenshot of a section of a form}*

Entity: select the child or young person the query relates to.
Due Date: should be 7 days from today’s date.

We aim to respond within that timeframe, but if we have to defer your query to another team there may be a delay.

Assign to: Fostering Finance Team
Title: enter a title

Text: enter as much detail as possible regarding your query.
Attachment: you can upload any documents, receipts etc – so long as it is saved to your device. Click Choose File and select the file.

^{A screenshot of a button to attach a file}

Once you have filled out the form, click on the Create Action button:

You will be able to view all actions raised within this screen. The Assigned To column indicates whether the action is with us to respond or if we have sent a response back to you. In the status column:

Amber megaphone = action due
Red megaphone = overdue
Green megaphone = complete

*^{A screenshot of actions screen with highlighted sections.}*

When we have responded, the Assigned To column will update to ‘Provider’.

You can then click on this action to view the response(s):

*^{A screenshot of an action conversation, with colour coded section to indicate the messenger.}*

Reply: if you need to continue the query, click Reply
Request Closure: if you are satisfied with the response and are happy for us to close down the action, click Request Closure

Remittance Advice

When you select ‘Reports’ from the portal home screen, you have the option of two reports. Select the Remittance Advice report.

This screen will give you detailed breakdowns of payments made within a defined payment period. You can select a payment period using the Finalisation dropdown.

^{Reports logo 1}

^{Remittance Advice logo}

This screen will give you detailed breakdowns of payments made within a defined payment period. You can select a payment period using the Finalisation dropdown.

*^{A screenshot of a remittance report, with filter dropdowns and blue buttons.}*

If you receive more than one type of payment e.g., you are a Mainstream Carer as well as a Part Time Carer, the Contract dropdown will allow you to view each type of payment separately.

Excel: If you wish to download this data into a spreadsheet, click the ‘Download Data’ button.
PDF: If you wish to download an electronic copy in a PDF format, click on the Floppy Disk Icon (save button) and this will allow you to save as a PDF file to your computer.

PLEASE NOTE: If any of the reporting parameters are changed whilst looking at a different report e.g., changing the payment period, the portal WILL NOT update itself and you will need to click the ‘View’ button once again to refresh the report.

Our finance officers may add remittance notes, if it helps to explain certain payment items or payment adjustments. You can see these notes at the bottom of the remittance report.

At the bottom of the Remittance Advice, you will find details of the team to contact should you have any payment queries:

For any queries regarding your remittance advice slip, please email: BCFTBSProviderServicesFinance@bradford.org.uk

Annual Carer Statement

When you select ‘Reports’ from the portal home screen, you have the option of two reports. Select the Annual Statement of Carer report.

^{Reports logo 1}

^{Remittance Advice logo}

You can select the tax year from the dropdown, and then click View. The information will generate in a window below this section.

*^{A screenshot of annual statement report, with filter dropdowns and blue buttons.}*

Once on this screen you can either Select Download Data to save as a or Click on the Floppy Disk icon (save).

Excel: If you wish to download this data into a spreadsheet, click the ‘Download Data’ button.
PDF: If you wish to download an electronic copy in a PDF format, click on the Floppy Disk Icon (save button) and this will allow you to save as a PDF file to your computer.

Email Notifications

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This section allows you to decide what things you would like to be notified of by email. You can update this as and when you like. Your options are based on the icons you see on the home screen:

*^{A screenshot of email notification settings with tick boxes.}*

Tick the areas you would like to be notified of, when there is a change or something new to view – then click the Save button.

On this page

Introduction

Logging On and Password/Code Reset

Forgot your Password:

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Home Screen

Care Package Line Items