Fostering Placements

I would like to request the following information regarding Fostering placements for Looked After Children. 

1. Who, within the local authority, has commissioning responsibility for Fostering placements for Looked After Children? Please provide the following:
a. Name – Vikki Hearn
b. Job title – Head of Service, Children’s Commissioning and Resources
c. Telephone number – 0345 155 1015
e. Email address – Vikki.Hearn@devon.gov.uk

2. How many approved foster carer households are registered with the Local Authority (LA) as at 31st Mar 2022, 30th Jun 2022, 30th Sep 2022, 31st Dec 2022, 31st Mar 2023, 30th Jun 2023, 30th Sep 2023, and 31st Dec 2023 (if unavailable please provide the most recent data available – please give date)?
Note: We are referring to in-house LA foster carer households excluding kinship carer households.

31st Mar 2022 – 329
30th Jun 2022 – 317
30th Sep 2022 – 316
31st Dec 2022 – 316
31st Mar 2023 – 320
30th Jun 2023 – 328
30th Sep 2023 – 313
31st Dec 2023 – 316

Please note these figures include Kinship and Mainstream foster carers as Devon County Council (DCC) only holds figures for Kinship and Mainstream foster carers combined, not separately. 

3. How many Looked After Children (LAC) has the Local Authority funded in foster care placements, with in-house foster carers, with Independent Fostering Agency (IFA) carers, with Kinship (family and friends) foster carers and in IFA therapeutic fostering placements, as at 31st Mar 2022, 30th Jun 2022, 30th Sep 2022, 31st Dec 2022, 31st Mar 2023, 30th Jun 2023, 30th Sep 2023 and 31st Dec 2023 (if unavailable please provide the most recent data available – please give date)?
Note: Therapeutic foster care is also known as therapy foster care, multidimensional treatment foster care, specialist foster care, treatment foster (family) care and family-based treatment. It is designed for young people who cannot live at home, usually due to behavioural problems including chronic delinquency.

31st March 2022 – 173

28th June 2022 – 166

30th September 2022: Information not available, used 17th October 2022 – 167

31st December 2022: Information not available, used 16th January 2023 – 170

13th March 2023 – 178

23rd June 2023 – 173

19th September 2023 – 186

18th December 2023 – 180

DCC will be unable to provide information for therapeutic placements as we believe compliance with this request would exceed the appropriate cost limit under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which is £450 or 18 hours of officer time. To access this, DCC would need to look at each child’s Individual Placement Agreement (IPA) to see what has been agreed between Devon and the provider. This equates to approximately 200 plus IPA’s x 10 minutes per IPA = roughly 33 hours.

4. What are the average weekly fees that the local authority would pay to foster care providers (in-house, IFAs and IFA therapeutic fostering placements) for the following age groups in 2021/22, 2022/23 and year to date in 2023/24?

Note: By average weekly fee we mean skill fee element only, excluding agency fee etc, and the fee paid to foster carers per week, not the fostering allowance.

a. 0 to 4
b. 5 to 10
c. 11 to 15
e. 16 to 18

In house, Fostering Devon allowances for foster carers, does not have an age related and skill set fee. Please see below the weekly allowance paid to foster carers, per week, per child.

Fostering Allowance 2021-2022 & 2022-23

Fostering Allowance 2023-24

With regards to IFAs, DCC does not hold this information.

5. Please provide a list of Independent Fostering Agencies used by the Council. Please provide data for the last financial year 2022/23 (if available); if not, the most recent data available – please give date.
a. Please provide the total number of placements with each agency.
b. Please provide total expenditure with each agency.

DCC believes compliance with question 5a and 5b would exceed the appropriate cost limit under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which is £450 or 18 hours of officer time. This would require tracking across 12 monthly Live Agreement Spreadsheets, checking for placement start and end dates for each placement for each of the 21 IFA’s as this would alter during the year, and the cost would also need to be tracked in the same way. As a minimum this would equate to 1 IFA at 10 minutes per spreadsheet with 12 spreadsheets (10 minutes x 12 = 2 hours). With 21 IFAs in total this would be 21 x 2 hours = 42 hours.

6. What is the gross total expenditure (excluding fostering staff team costs) on fostering services for Looked After Children? Please provide actual figures for financial years 2019/20 to 2022/23, as well as budgeted expenditure for 2023/24.

2019/20 – £16,680,752
2020/21 – £17,227,794
2021/22 – £18,695,528
2022/23 – £17,901,401
2023/24 – £20,682,000