Bosses of private companies providing costly care placements for children should be better scrutinised, including being asked how big their Christmas bonus is, a Councillor has claimed.
Members of Bradford Council’s Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee were discussing care placements at its most recent meeting.
The meeting took place the same week the Local Government Association revealed most Councils in the UK have at least one child in a placement that costs taxpayers at least £10,000 a week.
The high number of Bradford children in costly external placements is one of the main reasons the Bradford Children’s Trust faces a predicted overspend of £45m this year.
Bradford Council recently revealed the average annual cost it pays for an external childcare placement is around £312,000 per child, with the weekly average cost being £6,000.
At the scrutiny meeting, Councillor Jeanette Sunderland (Lib Dem, Idle and Thackley) suggested the bosses of companies charging the Council huge amounts of taxpayer money to provide these placements should attend scrutiny meetings where they could be grilled on why their placements are so high.
She said: “It is public money being spent by private agencies. We’re buying a service to look after the most vulnerable people in our District.
“Why shouldn’t we be calling these people in to ask them how big their Christmas bonus is?
“Otherwise we’re just sat in a room talking to each other until Ofsted visit and tell us we’re doing something wrong.”
Cllr Mike Pollard (Cons, Baildon) said: “I am aware of the Council’s financial position, but given the difference between the cost of a Council care placement and an external care placement is around £80,000 a year, could it not be considered that spending £400,000 to buy a children’s home to use rather than sending a child to a costly external placement could be an ‘invest to save’ situation?”
He suggested that any block on Council spending due to its dire financial position could be resisted when it comes to new children’s homes.
The Local Government Association recently released data that showed the number of social care placements costing Councils over £10,000 a week had risen dramatically in the past five years.
There were 120 such placements in 2018/19, rising to 1,510 in 2022/23. The proportion of councils with at least one of these placements has increased from 23 per cent to 91 per cent over that same period.
The highest cost placement nationally was £63,000 a week.
Cllr Louise Gittins, Chair of the LGA’s Children and Young People Board said: “The astronomical costs of care placements mean there is less money available for councils to spend on earlier support for children and families.
“These findings are indicative of a broken market for children’s social care placements, but it doesn’t have to remain this way. With cross-government support, it is possible to make sure we have the right homes for all of the children in our care.”
