Please provide information about the numbers and cost of placements for 16 and 17 year old looked after children in your local authority.
Can you please answer the following questions:
1) How many 16 and 17 year old looked after children is your local authority responsible for currently?
As at 22/05/23, there were 227, 16 and 17 year old looked after children, under Devon Local Authority.
2) How many 16 and 17 year old looked after children in your local authority are currently placed out of area?
As at 22/05/23, there were 70, 16 and 17 year old children, placed outside of Devon County Council’s Local Authority area. E.g. those children who are placed in Torbay for example will be counted as ‘out’.
3) How many 16 and 17 year old looked after children were accommodated in spot purchased placements (off framework/contracted arrangements) in the 22/23 financial year?
Devon County Council believes 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.
This information is not centrally collected. In order to answer this question, we would have to review the files of all 16/17 year old’s in care (227 as of May 2023), plus the files of those young people who are now 18, but would have been 17 during the 2022/23 financial year.
It will take 15 minutes to check each young person’s file – this would mean that it would take approximately 56.25 hours to collate this information for this request.
4) What was the cost of placements/supported accommodation for 16 and 17 year olds per week for the 22/23 financial year?
a) lowest cost – £362
b) highest cost – £12,480
c) average cost – £3,611
5) Are there sufficient placements in your local authority area for 16 and 17 year old looked after children who have a high level of complex needs?
No