Young People Care Provision

For each calendar month of June 2023 – June 2024, please provide the following information:

1. How many young people aged 16 or above have come into Devon County Council (DCC) under Section 17?

Section 17 is interpreted to be Child In Need (CIN). The figures above are derived from the number of CIN Plans that started each month.  Please note: individual children could be counted more than once if they closed and then reopened (including if they closed and reopened in the same month).  Exclusions – Children in Care and children on Child Protection Plans.

2. How many young people aged 16 or above have come into DCC under Section 20?

This is the number of Section 20 (voluntary agreements from parents for their child(ren) to be temporarily placed in care with DCC) agreements made each month.  This includes children on short breaks.  Please note: children could be counted more than once if they left care but came back into care later.

3. How many young people aged 16 or above have come into DCC under Section 31?

Section 31 is interpreted to be Children with a Care Order and/or a Supervision Order, therefore, Full and Interim Orders are included in the figures above. If the child switched from one Order to another consecutively (i.e. an Interim Care Order ending because a Full Care Order was granted that day) then they have just been counted once.

4. How many young people under Section 20 or Section 31 have been placed in Young Devon provisions?

Between June 2023 and June 2024, there were less than five young people who were placed into care and moved into a Young Devon placement.

Devon County Council can confirm the requested information is held; however, the Council cannot disclose personal information, if releasing it would contravene any of the provisions in the UK General Data Protection Regulation.  In this instance, release of this information would contravene the first data protection principle by making young people potentially identifiable. Therefore, the information is exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (Personal Data). 

5. How many young people under Section 20 or Section 31 have been placed in Exeter Foyer, Fusion or YMCA provisions?

Between June 2023 and June 2024, there were 27 placements made of young people into Exeter Foyer, Fusion Independence and YMCA provisions (Children’s homes and Fusion Fostering not included).

Devon County Council can confirm the requested information is held; however, the Council cannot disclose personal information, if releasing it would contravene any of the provisions in the UK General Data Protection Regulation.  In this instance, release of this information would contravene the first data protection principle by making young people potentially identifiable. Therefore, the information is exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (Personal Data). 

6. How many young people under Section 20 or Section 31 have been placed in supported accommodation provisions that charge £2000 per week per young person?

The Council does hold information on how many young people under Section 31 have been placed in supported accommodation provisions that charge £2000 per week per young person. However, 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. The Council does not hold a centralised record of the information requested, therefore a manual check of every young persons care record would be required. Due to the sheer volume of children and young people involved with the Council this would far exceed the appropriate limit of 18 hours.

In the interests of providing advice and assistance, the Council can provide the following information in relation to those placed under Section 20 in the table below:

7. In Devon, what is the highest and lowest cost of supported accommodations (weekly fee per young person) where there is on-site, 24/7 staffing?

The Council does not hold this information.  This is because the finance department does not hold details of whether a placement has on-site, 24/7 staffing.

8. Are DCC planning on opening their own supported accommodation and children’s homes again?

The Council have a Flexible Purchasing System (FPS) in place for supported accommodation provisions for 16–17 year olds and care experienced people aged 18 or over.

The Council is re-purposing some of its internal provisions in alignment with its sufficiency strategy – to provide residential short breaks and specialist support for high levels of complexity.

9. How many young people are Section 17 in 2024, as opposed to 2023/24?

In 2023/24, 2495 Unique children were on a CIN Plan at some point between 01/04/2023 and 31/03/2024.

In 2024/25 (so far), 1401 Unique children were on a CIN Plan at some point since 01/04/2024.

Please note: ‘Unique children’ refers to how the number of children subject to a particular plan are counted. If a child has been subject to a CIN Plan more than once within the requested period, they would only count as one in the total.

10. Are Young Devon on the DCC framework?

Yes. Young Devon provide services within the Supported Accommodation and Homelessness Prevention FPS mechanisms.