Fostering placements for Looked After Children

1. Who, within the local authority, has commissioning responsibility for Fostering placements for Looked After Children? Please provide the following:
a. Name
b. Job title
c. Telephone no.
e. Email address

a. Deputy Chief Officer, Head of Children’s Health and Wellbeing, Children’s Services, Devon County Council
b. 01392 383000
c. childrenscommissioningsecure-mailbox@devon.gov.uk

2. How many approved foster carer households are registered with the Local Authority as at 30th Jun-20, 30th Sep-20, 31st Dec-20, 31st Mar-21, 30th June-21, 30th Sep-21 and 31st Dec-21?

Please see the table below.  In response to both questions 2 and 3, information for 2020 has not been obtained due to the length of time that this would have taken.  Any request is subject to s.12 of the Freedom of Inform Act 2000 and the related appropriate limit of £450 or 18 hours.

3. How many Looked After Children (LAC) has the Local Authority funded in foster care placements, with in-house foster carers, with Independent Fostering Agency (IFA) carers, with Kinship (family and friends) foster carers and in IFA therapeutic fostering placements, as at 30th Jun-20, 30th Sep-20, 31st Dec-20, 31st Mar-21, 30th June-21, 30th Sep-21 and 31st Dec-21?

Please see the table below.

We do not hold a specific breakdown of children living with in house mainstream and friends and family (Kinship) approved foster carers or with independent fostering agencies.

4. What are the average weekly fees that the local authority would pay to foster care providers (in-house, IFAs and IFA therapeutic fostering placements) for the following age groups in 2020/2021 and year to date in 2021/2022?
a. 0 to 4
b. 5 to 10
c. 11 to 15
e. 16 to 18

Please see the information below:

Average weekly costs Devon Fostering ( in-house fostering services).

*Weekly fees and allowances for in house foster carers are not dependent the ages of the children or young people but dependent on the needs and complexities they may bring.  In addition, if the foster carers attend 6 support groups and 6 training sessions per year, they have an additional allowance. They are as follows:-

Standard              £213.01

Training:-             £58. 03

Support Groups   £58.03

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Standard              £329.04

Enhanced            £419.09

Enhanced plus    £489.09

Average weekly costs Independent Fostering Agencies (IFA’s)

*Please note weekly fees for foster placements for children and young people are not dependent on their ages.

5. Please provide a list of preferred Independent Fostering Agencies, the gross total expenditure with that agency and the number of placements with that agency in 2020/21
Note: By ‘preferred’ we mean those agencies that would be considered and chosen for placements on a preferential basis by the council.

Please see the table below:

We have defined Preferred Providers as IFA’s currently operating on the Framework Agreement (contracting approach) in place with the Peninsula Commissioning and Procurement Partnership to which Devon is a member.

 

To provide the gross expenditure would require Officers to look across over 200 placements for 2020 and 200 placements for 2021 and determine how many weeks each placement has continued across the 12-month period. We would then need to multiply weekly costs by the number of weeks the placement has been in place to determine the overall cost for the placement in that year, then once determined for all other individuals to add these up to provide an overall gross expenditure total. This is not possible within the appropriate limit as referred to above and we are therefore not obliged to provide you with this information pursuant to s.12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

6. What is the gross total expenditure on fostering services for Looked After Children? Please provide actual figures for financial years 2017/18 to 2020/21, as well as budgeted expenditure for 2021/22.

Please see the table below: