Foster Care Provisions

1. How does the Local Authority commission or contract for the provision of foster care?
Please provide detail of the structure of that facility those arrangements

Devon County Council (DCC) form part of the Peninsula Commissioning & Procurement Partnership. This partnership have currently  jointly commissioned a Framework Agreement for the provision of fostering services. Independent Fostering Agencies were provided with an opportunity to join this contracting approach in 2018. The majority of external foster care provision required by DCC is made through and with Providers who are part of the contracting approach above. In a very small number of cases external foster care provision can also be commissioned by DCC through a spot purchase contracting approach with an Independent Fostering Agency

2. Do these arrangements include a facility designed for ‘step down from residential care’ (for these purposes defined as a specialist foster placement offered to transition children and young people from residential care)?

The current Peninsula Framework in place includes provision of an ‘Enhanced Foster Care in Independent Fostering Agency Placements’.

Please provide a description such as might be provided to a social worker placing a child

Please see below details for referral and arrangements for the provision of Enhanced Foster Care with an Independent Fostering Agency(IFA) contained within service specification provided at e) within the existing Framework Approach.

a. What is/are the contracted price(s) of such arrangements as at 1/4/2021?

Devon County Council believes compliance with this request would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which is £450 or 18 hours of officer time.

On the 26th of April 2021, data indicates a total of over 181 children and young people accessing fostering provision with external providers (IFAs). From data currently available it is not possible easily to determine the type of fostering provision being accessed by each child or young person for example :- enhanced fostering. To determine which of the 180 children and young people may be in an enhanced foster placement we would need to refer to the individual placement agreement for each child or young person. Then collate a list of those where we identify the provision is enhanced fostering, then look across our finance data to determine the cost of that placement. Repeat this for the remaining children and young people and then add together any costs and/ or numbers of children collectively for this time period.

It is estimated at least 30  minutes would be required to locate the IPA for a child, look through the details of this and then go back across other data sets to determine costs if this shows they are accessing enhanced fostering provision.

181 children and young people x 30 minutes – 5,430 minutes or 90.5 hours of officer time to arrive at the information requested. There would then be up to a further hour to add up costings for all the arrangements identified and numbers of children and young people for example, to then provide the total

b. How many children/ young people were placed through these arrangements in each of the financial year 2020 and 2021?

Devon County Council believes compliance with this request would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which is £450 or 18 hours of officer time.

Data available provides a summary of fostering arrangements in place every month within a year. As placements start and end at various points throughout a year and month, this would require us to look across 24 data sets in order to determine the list of children and young people accessing fostering provision in 2020 and 2021. We would then need to determine if any of these children are accessing ‘enhanced fostering’  arrangements. This would require us to look across individual placement agreements for each child or young person in order to identify this. Then collate and add together from this number to arrive at the totals.

On average there are between 150 and 200 children and young people accessing fostering services with external fostering providers we contract with at any one time. An estimated time allowance needed to provide data requested based on the above is provided below:-

20 minutes to look across each spreadsheet, filter and pull across details of individual children in placement.

20 minutes per spreadsheet x 24 data sets ( 12 for 2020 , 12 for 2021) = 480 minutes/ 8 hours

At least 30 minutes to then locate the IPA for each child and look through to see if can determine type of fostering provision being commissioned i.e., in this case if enhanced or not.

150 IPAs x 30 minutes to review = 4,500 minutes/ 75 hours of officer time

200 IPAs x 30 minutes  to review = 6,000 minutes / 100 hours of officer time

Sort and additional time then required to produce total numbers for those years accessing enhanced fostering provision.

Total estimated time 83-108 hours of officer time.

c. What was the average weekly placement price for those children placed in each year?

Devon County Council believes compliance with this request would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which is £450 or 18 hours of officer time.

Data available provides a summary of fostering arrangements in place every month within a year. As placements start and end at various points throughout a year and month, this would require us to look across 24 data sets in order to determine the list of children and young people accessing fostering provision in 2020 and 2021. We would then need to determine if any of these children are accessing ‘enhanced fostering’  arrangements. This would require us to look across individual placement agreements for each child or young person in order to identify this.

On average there are between 150 and 200 children and young people accessing fostering services with external fostering providers we contract with at any one time. An estimated time allowance needed to provide data requested based on the above is provided below:-

20 minutes to look across each spreadsheet, filter and pull across details of individual children in placement.

20 minutes per spreadsheet x 24 data sets ( 12 for 2020 , 12 for 2021) = 480 minutes/ 8 hours

At least 30 minutes to then locate the IPA for each child and look through to see if can determine type of fostering provision being commissioned i.e., in this case if enhanced or not.

150 IPAs x 30 minutes to review = 4,500 minutes/ 75 hours of officer time

200 IPAs x 30 minutes  to review = 6,000 minutes / 100 hours of officer time

Sort and additional time then required to produce total numbers for those years accessing enhanced fostering provision and looking across at the weekly costs (individual and then total) and then dividing to work out average cost per week.

Total estimated time 83-108 hours of officer time

d. How many placement weeks were delivered in each year to those placed in year?

Devon County Council believes compliance with this request would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which is £450 or 18 hours of officer time.

The calculations are above are the same for this questions, except when children and young people accessing enhanced fostering provision have been identified as above for each year then looking across each placement for each child to determine start and end date for their placements, then totalling the placement weeks delivered for all children and young people identified.

e. Please provide tender documentation or similar that describes the facility

Please refer to this Enhanced Fostering document

3. Has the Authority used other arrangements that provide ‘step down from residential care’ for children and young people?
Please list and provide descriptive material – such as is provided to social worker placing children for each.
a. What is/are the contracted or published price(s) of such arrangements as at 1/4/2021?
b. How many children/ young people were placed through these arrangements in each of the financial year 2020 and 2021?
c. What was the average weekly placement price for those children placed in each year?
d. How many placement weeks were delivered in each year to those placed in year?
e. Please provide tender documentation or similar that describes the facility.

There are no other commissioned arrangements or contracts in place which would support arrangements for step down specifically from residential care to a fostering service for children and young people. However, Fostering Devon always support children and young people when they step down and move from their residential home to a foster family.  Individual support is available to each child, young person and family in line with their needs; this available during the daytime, evenings and across the weekends.

4. For each of the financial years 2019, 2020 and 2021.
a. The average weekly price paid for a foster placement (all types).

Year 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22
Average weekly price external foster placements

 

£912.04

 

£923.88

 

£933.61

 

£968.73

b. The total number of weeks of foster care purchased.

Devon County Council believes compliance with this request would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which is £450 or 18 hours of officer time.

Data available provides a summary of children and young people living in foster care every month within a year. As placements start and end at various points throughout a year and month, this would require us to look across 36 data sets in order to determine the list of children and young people living in external foster care across those months and then to work out from the data set for these children and young people when placements started and ended in year, how many weeks this placement was supported and to determine where placements have continued for all weeks of that year. These would then need to be totalled in order to provide data being requested. On average there are between 150 and 200 children and young people accessing fostering services with external fostering providers we contract with at any one time.

c. The average price of a Children’s Homes placement.

Year 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22
Average weekly cost external residential placement

 

 

£4,556.93

 

 

£4,820.28

 

 

£4,847.49

 

 

£5,021.83

d. The total number of weeks purchased.

Devon County Council believes compliance with this request would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which is £450 or 18 hours of officer time.

Data available provides a summary of children’s home placements  in place every month within a year. As placements start and end at various points throughout a year and month, this would require us to look across 36 data sets in order to determine the list of children and young people in children’s home placements across those months and then to work out from placements started and ended in year how many weeks this placement was supported and to determine where placements have continued for all weeks of that year. These would then need to be totalled in order to provide data being requested. On average there are between 50 and 100 children and young people living in a children’s home.

5. Please provide contact details of the person with the responsibility for the commissioning of Specialist Foster Care Placements

Head of Commissioning.

E-mail:- childrenscommissioningsecure-mailbox@devon.gov.uk

Address:- Children’s Commissioning Team

Children’s Services, Devon County Council

County Hall Topsham Road

Exeter

EX2 4DQ

Main: 01392 383000

6. Please provide contact details of the person with the operational responsibility for ensuring there is a Children in Care placement sufficiency

Deputy Chief Officer – Head of Children’s Health and Wellbeing, Children’s Services.

E-mail:- childrenscommissioningsecure-mailbox@devon.gov.uk

Address:- Children’s Commissioning Team

Children’s Services, Devon County Council

County Hall Topsham Road

Exeter

EX2 4DQ

Main: 01392 383000