£25,000 to care for one child for one week during lockdown - Sunderland saw housing costs rocket as outbreak took hold

The ‘enormous sum’ was the estimated price given at one point to social workers in the region.

But bosses in Sunderland have insisted their handling of placements in the run up to the coronavirus pandemic meant they have been able to avoid such hefty bills.

“The regional figure [of looked after children (LAC)] has gone up,” Martin Birch, director of Social Care at Together for Children (TfC), which runs children’s services in Sunderland.

“But we’ve been able to ensure [Sunderland’s] LAC figure remains relatively static, although it has gone up slightly, by virtue of having quite a grip on our management of LACs.”

He added: “Because numbers have gone up by a significant margin with some of our partner local authorities it has put a lot of pressure on the LAC market.

“That has meant [the cost of] children’s placements have gone up by a considerable margin.

“One of our regional colleagues was quoted £25,000 per week for a residential placement, which is an enormous sum of money.”

Birch was speaking at a meeting of Sunderland City Council’s Children, Education and Skills Scrutiny Committee, which was held by videolink and broadcast via YouTube.

He claimed internal weekly care costs for LACs under TfC’s care currently stand at about £2,800, which he conceded was still a lot of money, but also ‘minuscule’ by comparison.

A report for the panel showed that since February the average number of LACs per 10,000 in Sunderland had consistently tracked below the level of the wider North East regional figure.

Birch suggested this could have been helped by the city’s social workers continuing to keep tabs on vulnerable children and families throughout lockdown.

He added: “Despite the obvious issues around COVID, our numbers of contacts and re-referrals have pretty much remained at the levels previous to COVID, which is starkly different to some of our regional colleagues.

“Ours have remained within sight of the 500 we would normally expect – on average we’re looking at 460 contacts per week.”

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