1. What is the number of children whose residential care placements are currently costing your council £10,000 or more each week?
As of the 30th September 2024, 10 children.
2. When did each of these placements start? E.g February 2023.
2 in April, 1 in May, 1 in June, 3 in August and 3 in September. All of these began in the year 2024.
3. What is the average length of time that these children have been in these care placements for?
77 days.
4. What is the highest cost your council is paying per week for a child to be in a residential care placement? If you cannot be specific, please give this figure rounded to the nearest ten thousand pounds. If possible, please provide the name of the care provider in this case.
£14,980 a week.
Information with regards to the providers name is exempt from disclosure under Section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (Commercial Interests). Devon County Council can confirm the requested information is held; however, it’s disclosure would prejudice the commercial interests of the Council.
This is because sharing this information could jeopardise our ability as a purchasing authority to achieve best value for money and lead to providers benchmarking against prices submitted. This may then lead to future tenders being less competitive.
The Council has considered the public interest in releasing this information and recognises there is a public interest in openness and transparency. However, there is a stronger public interest in ensuring best value for money for the taxpayer so the maximum amount of money can be spent on services for the people of Devon.
Therefore, the balance of public interest weighs in favour of withholding this information from disclosure.
This information is also exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (Personal Data).
The Council cannot disclose personal information if releasing it would contravene any of the provisions in the UK General Data Protection Regulation. In this instance release of this information would contravene the first data protection principle and therefore the information is withheld.