Vulnerable Wokingham children have been housed in private care homes as far away as Lancashire, Yorkshire and North Wales it has be revealed – with costs reaching more than £6 million.
A lack of suitable, local care homes means some children have been moved far away from home, a leading Wokingham Borough Councillor said.
Councillor Prue Bray – responsible for children’s care – said she wanted the council to open more of its own homes in the borough.
She said: “There will always be some children who need really specialist care, but at the moment we are one of a large number of authorities who have found ourselves with children for whom there’s no place anywhere in the country.
“If you’ve got a child in that situation, the nearest place might be Scotland or Wales – just horrendous.”
Figures obtained by the LDRS via a freedom of information request showed Wokingham Borough Council has paid £6,044,222 to private children’s care home providers between April 2022 and October 2023.
Some of the providers’ care homes are based as far away as Lancashire, Yorkshire and Wales.
The council has paid £355,425 for one home in Preston, £103,143 to First4Care which runs homes in Doncaster and £251,341 to Life Change Care in east Lancashire.
Another, Landskerr Child Care, runs homes across South and West Wales and has received £194,492 from Wokingham Borough Council.
Others operate homes in Norfolk, Kent, Hampshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire. The council paid £487,080 to Childhood First, which operates in Norfolk and Kent and £317,526 to Fairways Care UK which operates in Hampshire.
Councillor Bray said Wokingham Borough Council is trying to counter this by opening its own care homes in the borough, which it owns and runs itself.
She added this could also help the council lower its costs – with the price of housing a child with a private firm sometimes running to tens of thousands of pounds a week.
Councillor Bray said: “A lot of the residential homes are run by hedge funds and similar, which is awful, so they’re making vast sums of money.
“Five years ago there were only 120 children in placements that cost more than £10,000 a week, and now 91% of councils have a child that costs £10,000 a week.
And the highest is £63,000 a week – that was about two weeks ago. It’s eye-watering.
“What local authorities are trying to do, including us, is open our own children’s homes because that will take the control away from the profit makers.”
Wokingham Borough Council has bought three properties which it plans to open as care homes.
Its planning committee approved applications for homes in Earley and Arborfield in 2023.
Councillor Bray made the comments at a meeting of Wokingham Borough Council’s community and corporate overview and scrutiny committee on December 19.
