Sharon Cooke, the council’s interim director of children and family services, told a scrutiny commission meeting that a shortage of registered homes had allowed private providers to inflate what they charge the authority.She said: “At any one time, we have approximately 11 children living in residential care where they could live in a foster family if we were able to find it, and some of those children are of a very young age.”While good quality residential care plays an important part in the care of some children, currently we have children living in residential homes when they don’t need to.”The shortage of registered homes means providers are currently charging extortionate fees for places and, on occasions, forcing us to use unregulated or unregistered homes for periods of time.”Currently, a foster home will cost us between £800-a-week in-house, to about just over £1,000 for an Independent Fostering Agency (IFA).”A mainstay residential home costs us in the region of £10,000 per week per child, and some that are offering homes for children with more complex needs are far more expensive than that.”
Leicestershire County Council pays £10k a week for child care packages
