FOI release

Fostering Placements for looked after children

Some or all of the information requested was not provided because we determined that the cost to do so would exceed the appropriate limit.

Case reference FOI2024/00052

Published 31 January 2024

Request

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like to request the following information regarding Fostering placements for Looked After Children. Please provide answers on the attached accompanying spreadsheet.

1. Who, within the local authority, has commissioning responsibility for Fostering placements for Looked After Children? Please provide the following:

a. Name

b. Job title

c. Telephone no.

e. Email address

2. How many approved foster carer households are registered with the Local Authority as at 31st Mar-22, 30th Jun-22, 30th Sep-22, 31st Dec-22, 31st Mar-23, 30th Jun-23, 30th Sep-23, and 31st Dec-23 (if unavailable please provide the most recent data available - please give date)?

Note: We are referring to in-house LA foster carer households excluding kinship carer households.

3. How many Looked After Children (LAC) has the Local Authority funded in foster care placements, with in-house foster carers, with Independent Fostering Agency (IFA) carers, with Kinship (family and friends) foster carers and in IFA therapeutic fostering placements, as at 31st Mar-22, 30th Jun-22, 30th Sep-22, 31st Dec-22, 31st Mar-23, 30th Jun-23 and 30th Sep-23 and 31st Dec-23 (if unavailable please provide the most recent data available - please give date)?

Note: Therapeutic foster care is also known as therapy foster care, multidimensional treatment foster care, specialist foster care, treatment foster (family) care and family-based treatment. It is designed for young people who cannot live at home, usually due to behavioural problems including chronic delinquency.

4. What are the average weekly fees that the local authority would pay to foster care providers (in-house, IFAs and IFA therapeutic fostering placements) for the following age groups in 2021/22, 2022/23 and year to date in 2023/24?

Note: By average weekly fee we mean skill fee element only, excluding agency fee etc, and the fee paid to foster carers per week, not the fostering allowance.

a. 0 to 4

b. 5 to 10

c. 11 to 15

e. 16 to 18

5. Please provide a list of Independent Fostering Agencies used by the Council. Please provide data for the last financial year 2022/23 (if available); if not, the most recent data available - please give date.

a. Please provide the total number of placements with each agency.

b. Please provide total expenditure with each agency.

6. What is the gross total expenditure (excluding fostering staff team costs) on fostering services for Looked After Children? Please provide actual figures for financial years 2019/20 to 2022/23, as well as budgeted expenditure for 2023/24.

Response

1. Who, within the local authority, has commissioning responsibility for Fostering placements for Looked After Children? Please provide the following:

a. Name

b. Job title

c. Telephone no.

e. Email address

Note: We are referring to in-house LA foster carer households excluding kinship carer households.

Note: By average weekly fee we mean skill fee element only, excluding agency fee etc, and the fee paid to foster carers per week, not the fostering allowance.

a. 0 to 4

b. 5 to 10

c. 11 to 15

e. 16 to 18

a. Please provide the total number of placements with each agency.

b. Please provide total expenditure with each agency.

Regarding questions 3 and 4 this information is not held in a form that would enable it to be located, retrieved and extracted within the Appropriate Time Limit which equates to 18 hours as defined by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limits and Fees) Regulations 2004.

To ascertain the data requested for question 3 the Service Area have confirmed that Herefordshire Council do not have a register that tracks the information in the detail requested therefore electronic reporting systems are unable to run a report for this information. Officers would need to manually check the files for each child in foster care to obtain this information for the years requested. For question 4, the amount paid to foster carers is determined on each individual case and the foster carers would be paid a different amount depending on the package they are on. We are unable to run a report for this information and officers would need to manually check each file to determine the amount paid to each foster carer.

An initial search has shown that case files of 318 children in foster care would need to be checked for this information in this way, and it is estimated that it would take at minimum approximately 10 minutes to check each file.

This would at a conservative estimate take at least 53 hours to complete. Where the Limit is exceeded Public Authorities are not obliged to supply the information requested by virtue of S12 of the Act. Please take this letter as a refusal notice under S17 of the Act.

Within the cost limit we would be able to provide responses to questions 1,2,5 and 6. Please let us know if you would like us to continue to collate this information for you.

Documents

There are no documents for this release.

This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.

You can browse our other responses or make a new FOI request.