FOI release

Fee rates agreed with external suppliers of Independent Foster Care Services

Case reference FOI2022/01813

Published 13 January 2023

Request

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), for a copy of the documents containing the following information:

1. Details of the average fee rates agreed with external suppliers of Independent Foster Care Services for the current year (2022/2023). This is based on only one child with no disability and excludes allowances.

2. Details of the lowest, highest and average weekly fee rates paid to local authority carers (standard carer allowance, no extra skills payment). Please note that for question 2, we do not require details of all rates paid to individual suppliers, simply minimum, maximum and average rates payable.

3. The number of looked after children in Foster Care as of 03 October 2022 and of those children, the percentage looked after by independent foster agencies. We would like the above information supplied to us as electronic copies. Please only state your answers in an email or Word doc., no copied tables or Excel documents.

Response

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), for a copy of the documents containing the following information:

1. Details of the average fee rates agreed with external suppliers of Independent Foster Care Services for the current year (2022/2023). This is based on only one child with no disability and excludes allowances.

A: Based on our current placements as of 11.01.2023, the average weekly IFA Fee is £890 per week

2. Details of the lowest, highest and average weekly fee rates paid to local authority carers (standard carer allowance, no extra skills payment).

Please note that for question 2, we do not require details of all rates paid to individual suppliers, simply minimum, maximum and average rates payable.

A: Foster Care Rates - Effective from 1st January to 31st March 2021

1. FOSTER CARE ALLOWANCES (Age allowance)

AGE WEEKLY RATE

0 - 4 years 154.15

5 - 10 years 168.46

11 - 15 years 199.06

16 - 17 years 234.46

2. FOSTERING FEES

WEEKLY RATE

Level 1 100.00

Level 2 164.30

Level 3 223.00

HIPSS/ARC 450.00

3. The number of looked after children in Foster Care as of 03 October 2022 and of those children, the percentage looked after by independent foster agencies.

A: 89 of 277=32%

Documents

There are no documents for this release.

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