Costs for children in care 'staggering' - councillor

Northamptonshire Children's Trust is set to spend an extra £32m over its £150m budget

The average cost of a placement for a child in care of more than £5,000 a week was "staggering" a council leader has said.

A report about Northamptonshire Children's Trust said some individual plans cost the county's two councils more than £1m.

The trust was set up as a joint service for West Northamptonshire Council and North Northamptonshire Council.

Jason Smithers, the leader of North Northamptonshire Council, said: "We need to get a grip on what is costing us and how we can manage that."

The trust was formed following a number of critical Ofsted reports on how the children's services were being run by the now-defunct Northamptonshire County Council, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

It has been predicted that the trust will have to spend an extra £32m over its £150m budget for 2023-24, with most of the excess costs attributed to expensive placements and high demand.

'Easy option'

In a report presented at a joint services meeting with both councils, it was revealed that the average cost of a residential placement in 2023/24 was £281,000, or about £5,400 per week.

It said some care packages costed more than £1m, but it did not say how many.

Jason Smithers praised the work being done to help children in care but questioned the cost

Mr Smithers, a Conservative councillor, said: "I'm just trying to get my head around some of these figures.

"I just wonder, are we just taking a responsibility for some of these children when parents are taking an easy option and just handing children over to us?

"Now I know we have a risk based approach to this through MASH [Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub] , but the cost of this is staggering."

Rebecca Wilshire, West Northamptonshire Council's director for children's services, confirmed that there was a "robust" process and that all children entering the care system needed to be there.

"The more we can do within our local areas around developing our own homes, 16-plus accommodation, the better we start to challenge that," she said.

Both councils have committed to helping the trust assess its financial management and provide advice and support amid the spiralling costs of children's care.