What is the largest amount paid for a single weekly placement at a children’s home in the last three years (2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19)?
Please state the highest amount and in which year it was paid. Please say which private provider this was paid to.
* What is the largest amount paid for a single nightly placement at a children’s home in the last three years (2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19)?
Please state the highest amount and in which year it was paid. Please say which private provider this was paid to.
* What is the largest amount paid for a total package of care at a children’s home in the last three years (2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19)?
Please state the highest amount and in which year it was paid, as well as how long the placement was for. Please say which private provider this was paid to. *By total package, a mean one child’s stay at one
home*
We hold this information but consider that disclosure may provide competitive advantage to third parties and may prejudice the commercial interests of existing and other future providers, and to the council.
High cost packages of care required for cases with complex needs would still carry an expectant range of costs, a market average. Some packages of care are purchased in emergency circumstances that may fall outside the expectant ranges due to a variety of reasons but often because a provider needs to change their offer at short notice, for example blocking other capacity to allow for the placement to take place. This means the largest amounts requested will be outside of what is considered to be normal and therefore disclosure will impact our ability to achieve best value for money; even though the provider market will not have the detail of the specific package they will understand the expectant range even in high need circumstances.
Because of the above we are exempting the information requested from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Section 43( 2) Commercial Interests. As this is a qualified exemption we are required to carry out a public interest test. We accept there is a public interest in openness and transparency, however, there is also a strong public interest in ensuring that we obtain value for money from our commissioned services to support the provision of care for children and young people.Therefore, for this reason we believe that the balance of public interest lies in applying exemption 43(2).