Our benchmark comparisons focus on Children Looked After in childrens homes or foster care, using the well known BVPI 51 / PAF B8 framework. The questionnaire collects detailed projections of the main figures involved, i.e.

Budgets for costs and occupancy of their own childrens homes

A snapshot of the current weekly payments to independent homes

A similar snapshot of the current weekly payments to foster carers

Estimates of other costs chargeable to CLA, e.g. supplementary payments to foster carers, the authority’s foster team and any other indirect or overhead costs

Any adjustments to these “snapshot” figures necessary to convert them to an annual BVPI cost estimate.

The focus is as much on the proportions of children in each type of care as on the unit costs, as it is a feature of children looked after that the main reason for differences in the overall cost per child tends to be differences in mix of care, rather than differences in the individual unit costs.

Additional Comparisons
While the exercise focuses on the unit costs of looked after children in residential and foster care, it also aims to collect any further information that is readily available and interesting to compare, for example:

Number of children looked after in relation to the child population, in total and for each year-group

OFSTED Ratings

National outcome indicators

Sheet2!A1 Numbers of children looked after other than in homes or foster care.
For further information, please contact Aidan Rawlinson, Benchmarking Developer on 0208 667 8569 or aidan.rawlinson@cipfa.org.uk.