Please provide information regarding the current status of looked-after children under the care of your local authority.
1) Current Number of Looked-After Children
Please provide the total number of children currently under the care of the local authority.
There are 848 children currently under care of the local authority.
2) Breakdown of Placement Categories
a) Solo Placements: The number of children currently in solo placements and the range of weekly fees associated with these placements, specifying the lowest and highest fees.
b) 1:1 Placements: The number of children receiving one-to-one care and the range of weekly fees for these placements, specifying the lowest and highest fees.
c) 2:1 Placements: The number of children receiving two-to-one care and the range of weekly fees for these placements, specifying the lowest and highest fees.
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.
A manual check of each child’s record and individual placement agreement would be required to identify the type of placement and retrieve this information. This would take approximately 15 minutes per record and there are 779 individual records, which is 194 hours and over the cost limit.
Under the Act, there is a duty to provide advice and assistance as to how a request can be refined to fit within the appropriate limit. Unfortunately, due to the way the data is held this is not possible for this request.
3) Unregulated Placements
The number of children currently placed in unregulated accommodations.
The range of weekly fees for these unregulated placements, specifying the lowest and highest fees.
There are currently 8 unregulated placements.
| Solo Placements | 8 |
| 1:1 Placements | 2 |
| 2:1 Placements | 5 |
| Total | 8 |
Please note that some young people are both solo and 2:1 placements.
The lowest weekly fee paid is £8,195 and the highest is £25,430.