How much can it cost to care for a child?

[Pale Rider]

The answer in the Wirral is a whopping £42,000 a week of public money.

Apparently the little treasure has 'complex needs', but £2m a year?

The local authority is paying £30k+ a week for several other children - cheapskates, barely enough to keep a child warm and fed.

A LibDem councillor is blaming profiteering by the private company providing the service.

But there's profiteering and extortion.

Who on earth in the treasurer's department is signing off the invoices?

It must be possible to look after the child, no matter how complex its needs, for a lot less than two mil a year.

Worth remembering next time your local authority moans it has no money.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-66992149

 

[The Crofted Crest]

The answer in the Wirral is a whopping £42,000 a week of public money.

Apparently the little treasure has 'complex needs', but £2m a year?

The local authority is paying £30k+ a week for several other children - cheapskates, barely enough to keep a child warm and fed.

A LibDem councillor is blaming profiteering by the private company providing the service.

But there's profiteering and extortion.

Who on earth in the treasurer's department is signing off the invoices?

It must be possible to look after the child, no matter how complex its needs, for a lot less than two mil a year.

Worth remembering next time your local authority moans it has no money.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-66992149

Thought you were in favour of the free market.

 

[Pale Rider]

Thought you were in favour of the free market.

Hardly worth replying, but the company can ask whatever they want for their service.

The local authority, spending public money, doesn't have to pay it.

That's the free market in action.

 

[AndyRM]

It's pretty easy for costs to spiral massively when it comes to specialised care needs. If it was the other way round there'd be reports of neglect or worse.

 

[Pale Rider]

It's pretty easy for costs to spiral massively when it comes to specialised care needs. If it was the other way round there'd be reports of neglect or worse.

I agree it won't be cheap, but £42,000 a week is still a ludicrous sum.

Five full time salaries for 24 hour a day care would only be a few thousand a week.

How much can you spend on accommodation, every week?

What individual treatment can the child need which genuinely costs £30k+ every week?

 

[winjim]

If that's what they charge then that's what it costs and you can't blame the LA for paying it.

 

[Beebo]

Not enough information to comment. It looks far too expensive but we don’t know the background or needs of the child.

Maybe no one else wants to do it so the only supplier in town can charge what they like.

 

[newfhouse]

Not enough information to comment. It looks far too expensive but we don’t know the background or needs of the child.

Maybe no one else wants to do it so the only supplier in town can charge what they like.

Exactly this. What's the alternative? Leave the child without appropriate care? We simply don't know enough.

 

[AndyRM]

As above, there are all kinds of possible requirements which simply haven't been mentioned in enough detail.

Is it expensive? Yes, it would seem so, but not beyond the realms of possibility.

 

[Deleted member 49]

Hardly worth replying, but the company can ask whatever they want for their service.

The local authority, spending public money, doesn't have to pay it.

That's the free market in action.

Trouble is Paley they do have to pay it when there's no other option.Privatization of children's social care means big profits for the owners.Theres quite a few,well a lot here in Blackpool.The council don't have the facilities to cope A lot of these kids have come from serious abuse and neglect.Sent miles away from family and siblings.Fecking desperate situation where there either preyed upon by grooming gangs/county lines or end up inside.I can't remember exactly the amount that end up in prison but its shocking !
Worked at a few myself and it's a tough but rewarding job for minimum wage.Half the people working there have little interest in the kids and the bosses /managers are only interested in profit

 

[Bromptonaut]

How difficult is this child to care for?

 

[the snail]

Yet again, Paley fails to understand how the world works. This is what happens when you cut public services to the bone, and leave councils (who have a statutory duty to care for these children) at the mercy of the private sector.

 

[winjim]

Yet again, Paley fails to understand how the world works. This is what happens when you cut public services to the bone, and leave councils (who have a statutory duty to care for these children) at the mercy of the private sector.

But the real trick to it is to do exactly what he's done in the OP and put the blame onto the local authority.

 

[BoldonLad]

Yet again, Paley fails to understand how the world works. This is what happens when you cut public services to the bone, and leave councils (who have a statutory duty to care for these children) at the mercy of the private sector.

More information needed of course, about each case referred to, but.....

Cut to the bone, when they are spending such prodigious amounts?

One of the problems appears to be there is only one "supplier", is a public sector monopoly superior to a private sector monopoly?

 

[winjim]

More information needed of course, about each case referred to, but.....

Cut to the bone, when they are spending such prodigious amounts?

One of the problems appears to be there is only one "supplier", is a public sector monopoly superior to a private sector monopoly?

The public sector care system is cut to the bone so the local authority has to spend the money. That's two separate entities being played off each other for political reasons.