Looked after children - independent placements information

Variances to historical placement spend

Our report details the most frequently requested information about the number of placements and financial spend by placement type. The headings below relate to the pages in the report and provide additional context and commentary on the figures.

Download Historical placement spend report for looked after children - xls file

Total spend and number of placements

The report shows the amount spent on external placements per type of placement per financial year. IFA (Independent Fostering Agency) and residential placements have gone up each year, supported accommodation went up in 2019/20 but we saw some reduced spend in 2020/21.

The increased spend on IFA can’t be down to the number of placements because our records show that we actually paid for fewer placements in 2019/20 and 2020/21 than we did in 2018/19. It could be reflective of there being some placements with higher fees in the subsequent years, or in 2018/19 we may have had a handful of placements that were only short term.

The number of placements in supported accommodation supports the pattern in spend with there being an increase in 2019/20 and then a drop in 2020/21.

Residential numbers have increased every year along with the total spend.

Weekly fees

Average and lowest paid weekly fees do not fluctuate massively. The highest paid weekly fees will fluctuate because they tend to be one-off situations and are mostly short term whilst the service is finding a more suitable long term placement. Some high cost placements will be long term depending on the needs of the young person.

Highest cost in one year

This is the highest amount spent on one young person at one provider. The placement is not necessarily the same one that had the highest weekly fee because, as explained above, those placements aren’t always long term. Below is the duration of the placement that caused the highest cost in one year and the weekly fee.

2018/19

  • IFA – 365 days, weekly cost £1,490
  • Supported accommodation – 243 days, weekly cost £3,069
  • 2018/19 – 363 days, weekly cost £4,950

2019/20

  • IFA – 366 days, weekly cost £1,475
  • Supported accommodation – 365 days, weekly cost £4,096
  • Residential – 366 days, weekly cost £4,600

2020/21

  • IFA - 365 days, weekly cost £1,475
  • Supported accommodation – 365 days, weekly cost £2,730
  • Residential – 154 days at a weekly cost of £7,260 increasing to £11,731 for 211 days.

Top three supplier spend

This relates to the highest amount paid to a supplier for any number of placements over any duration and fee, rather than the highest amount paid for one placement. The number of placements each spend relates to is as follows:

2018/19

  • IFA – 13, 12, 11
  • Supported accommodation – 8, 3, 3
  • Residential – 7, 3, 4

2019/20

  • IFA – 10, 7, 14
  • Supported accommodation – 13, 1, 3
  • Residential – 5, 3, 1

2020/21

  • IFA – 14, 26, 6
  • Supported accommodation – 2, 3, 1
  • Residential – 6, 8, 1

Highest spend on one young person in one year

This relates to the highest spend on external placements for one young person in a year. It could be over multiple different providers or just one. Below is the number of providers each total relates to and the weekly fees for each.

2018/19

  • IFA – one provider, weekly fee £1,490
  • Supported accommodation – one provider, weekly fee £3,069
  • Residential – five providers, weekly fees 1. £3,650 2. £2,650 3. £9,000 4. £5,712 5. £3,000 & £5,550

2019/20

  • IFA – one provider, weekly fee £1,475
  • Supported accommodation – one provider, weekly fee £4,096
  • Residential – four providers, weekly fees 1. £3,300 2. £3,500 & £6,500 3. £6,300 4. £7,186

2020/21

  • IFA – one provider, weekly fee £1,490
  • Supported accommodation – one provider, weekly fee £2,730
  • Residential – one provider, weekly fees 1. £7,260 2. £11,731