Rising costs of children’s placements in Plymouth “can’t continue”

Leader says it needs to bring service in-house

The rising cost of placing children in the care of Plymouth City Council can’t be allowed to continue, its leader says.

Nearly 70 per cent of the budget for children, young people and families is expected to be spent on residential care this financial year with some placements for children with the most complex needs costing as much £40,000 a week.

The authority is looking at how it can provide its own placements rather than rely on private companies.

Earlier this year, it asked the government to investigate the fees charged by some of the largest children’s placement providers as they made “eye watering profits from the most vulnerable people in society”.

A report commissioned by the Local Government Association (LGA) revealed some companies had banked profits of more than £300 million last year.

A council cabinet heard that the £37 million in the budget for children’s placements for 2024/25 is not enough and they were facing an overspend of nearly £5 million.

Some 521 children are currently in the care of Plymouth City Council, 33 more than budgeted for.

Cabinet member for children’s services Jemima Laing (Lab, Stoke) branded the  finance report “stark” .

Council leader Tudor Evans (Lab Ham) said for 20 years the authority had been talking about becoming a placement provider.

“I can ask the government to cap the cost and I will continuing taking the message to the LGA, but this is something we have had regular discussions on since we became a unitary authority.”

He continued: “We cannot continue like this. Every time we allow the budget to grow, it deprives other parts of the council’s work to be able do its job. We have to snap out of it.

“I appreciate how difficult it is and how hard everyone is working, but we have other services in the council that people rely on.”

Cllr Laing said a piece of work is looking at bringing the service in-house.

She said the average costs of a placement per week was £6,182 but that could rise to £16,000 a week for children with complex needs and two placements  cost £40,000.

She said the council had “little to no bargaining power” but it had prevented 55 children from entering care in the past few months and supported nine more  to return home, resulting in significant cost savings.

Through a programme called ‘Family Homes for Plymouth Children’  £1.5 million of potential savings had been identified for the current financial year, with just over half a million pounds already achieved by moving children.

The council was reuniting children with birth families where possible and had introduced a financial package to support the city’s foster carers.

But cabinet members were told that such carers felt they lacked the experience and confidence to take on teenagers with more complex needs and some “very special people” were being sought to help address this.

“It well understood that pressures here impact on other areas of the council,” said Cllr Laing. “It is not something that anyone takes lightly. It’s is a demand-led service. It’s not a case of people sitting back and letting things run away. We are relentless at looking at how we tackle this pressure.”