Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Section 1(1), please provide the following information about children’s residential care placements commissioned by Devon for the financial year 2025-26.
1. Your published rate card, fee schedule, or the minimum and maximum weekly fees for children’s residential placements, broken down by placement category where you record this distinction. If rates are individually negotiated rather than published, the range applicable to 2025-26 would satisfy this request. Categories of interest, where applicable:
– Standard residential
– Social, emotional and mental health (SEMH)
– Complex needs or therapeutic
– Parent-and-child
– Solo placements
– Emergency or unplanned placements
We do not have any Rate Cards or minimum and maximum weekly fees for childrens residential placements.
Average Weekly Cost – Registered Childrens Home £7,710 per week
Average Weekly Cost – Supported Accommodation £2,981 per week
In 2024/25 we used 61 different independent registered childrens homes providers and that the total expenditure was £17,082,558
We also utilised 38 different Supported Accommodation Providers with a total annual expenditure of £9,231,905
All placements costing £8,000 per week or more require Director Level Authorisation. This involves close scrutiny of all elements of the cost breakdown and is subject to frequent review.
2. The total number of children’s residential placements (in-authority and out-of-authority) commissioned by your authority, as at the most recent available date.
At present we have a total of 816 children in care.
Of these 128 live in registered childrens homes and 66 in supported accommodation.
In total, 28% of children in care are placed out of Devon