Costs of placements for Hertfordshire children in care highlighted in budget setting process

The 'mind-boggling' costs of children’s home places have been highlighted, as councillors continue to scrutinise county council budget plans for 2022/23.

There are currently more than 900 ‘looked after’ children in the care of the county council – living in children’s homes, in foster care or who are living ‘semi-independently’.

And on Wednesday, January 26, the costs of those placements were detailed to a cross-Party group of county councillors, as part of the council’s budget-setting process.

Councillors were told that typically the cost of placing a child in a county council children’s home was around £4,000 a week.

But the average cost of a place in an independent children’s home was around £1,000 more – at £5,000 a week.

And that cost could be as high as £60,000 a week for a bespoke setting.

Those costs were described as “mind-boggling” by Cllr Laurence Brass, who chaired the session.

But councillors heard there were plans to reduce those costs by increasing in-house children’s home places and recruiting more foster carers.

Councillors were told of ongoing plans to increase the number of children’s home places in the county by 31.

That would, they heard, ensure good quality provision that would meet the needs of children, who may have complex needs, as well as reducing costs.

They were told of the council’s efforts to employ social care staff and foster carers directly – rather than carers opting to work for an agency.

And that’s important to the council budget because typically a placement with a Hertfordshire foster carer costs £500 a week.

But an independent foster placement typically costs the council DOUBLE that amount – at £1000 a week.

In addition they were told of the council’s drive to prevent children needing to come into care – by reaching out to vulnerable children and their families.

Operations director for specialist services Marion Ingram acknowledged the challenges the county council faced in recruiting some staff – particularly for residential care.

And she said the council was looking at the reasons staff were attracted to agencies – by looking at relative pay, training and working hours.

She reported that in the past year the council has recruited 53 new foster carers, which was ‘a spectacularly brilliant performance’ compared to other authorities.

But she said a number of existing foster carers – in their 60s, 70s and 80s – had been reluctant to take children, because of reasons associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.

And as a result she said the number of children placed with Hertfordshire foster carers had not increased.

According to budget proposals, the cost of services for looked after children is expected to increase from £60.9m this year – to £70m in 2022/23.

Executive director of children’s services Jo Fisher pointed to an increase in the number of looked after children in the county.

She told councillors there remained a ‘huge amount of uncertainty’ about future demand, in the wake of the pandemic.

And she said this reflected the stresses that families had been under – but also their inability to access some of the universal support that would usually have been offered through schools or family centres.

However she did say she expected the increase in children looked after to continue at a slower rate moving forward.

Meanwhile the group also looked at the cost of the provision of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Councillors heard that between 2015 ad 2021 the children in the county with an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) had more than doubled – from 3682 to 8338.

And councillors heard that Hertfordshire per pupil special needs funding was the fourth lowest in the country.

Councillors heard that there was some acknowledgement of this nationally and that the county council had lobbied for change.

Also under scrutiny were budget plans to allocate £530,000 to a mentoring pilot, referred to as ‘Motivation, Commitment and Resilience’ (MCR).

And concerns were also raised about the costs of home to school transport – with costs expected to rise by £6m by 2026.