DORSET Council is being urged to get a move on and find locally-run homes for some of its vulnerable children being cared for out of the county.

The call comes after it was revealed this week that care for just one child is now costing more than £16,000 a week – equal to £832,000 over the course of a year.

Weymouth councillor David Gray said on Tuesday that the case illustrated the need for Dorset Council to have more in-county provision for the children it needed to look after in residential care – and called for it to happen as soon as possible.

Earlier this month councillors were told by Children’s Services director Sarah Parker that work was being done to find more residential places within rural Dorset. It is understood that a meeting is being held this Thursday to examine if any council-owned properties might be converted to a new centre within the Dorset Council area. The Cherries site at Weymouth, the only remaining children’s residential centre, is among the sites being considered.

Dorchester councillor Richard Biggs told the council’s audit and governance committee on Tuesday that the council was, effectively, being held to ransom by specialist care providers – something he warned would happened when the closure of care homes at Cattistock and in Dorchester were announced a year ago.

“It was warned that it would lead to increased cost – they can now charge what they want,” said Cllr Biggs.

“There now needs to be a bit more urgency on bringing back our own in-house provision. It’s not just the costs, it’s the standards, some of which leave something to be desired,” he said.

Dorset children’s services is currently facing an end of financial year shortfall of £6.9million and is about to undergo a consultation on how its social work teams will operate in future, based around intervening earlier with families in difficulties. It is believed earlier involvement and support could reduce the number of children in the care of Dorset Council – a figure which peaked at 600 in the course of the year and currently stands at around 425.

Despite the calls for more in-house provision the Council is unlikely to be able to provide specialist and secure placements which will continue to be ‘bought in’ from outside companies. It will, instead, concentrate on providing ‘therapeutic’ placements for a up to 40 children.

In the past 15 months an average of 36 per cent of children looked after by the council were in externall palcements. At the end of June there were 161 Dorset children with external providers – accounting for a £5.5million overspend on the budget for external placements. The costs generally range from between £3,000 and £8,250 a week.

Dorset also has 199 children placed with in-house foster carers, at an average cost of around £30,000 each, per year.