A recent BBC investigation into foster care highlighted a “fierce argument” about the relative costs of independent sector foster care compared with local authority care. In the programme, a Liverpool councillor said that bringing the foster carers “in house” could save millions of pounds per year. Late last year, Luton Borough Council was the latest to draw comparisons, stating that independent fostering agencies (IFAs) cost as much as double or treble the cost of council-run foster care.
Such assertions are at odds with the 2018 study of comparative costs made as part of Sir Martin Narey and Mark Owers’ Fostering Stocktake. It found that although IFAs were, overall, a higher cost service, when a like-for-like comparison is made, then “…the cost differential between local authorities and IFA costs narrow considerably to the point where, in some instances, there is very little between them”.
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