SOME youngsters with complex needs are living in residential placements costing an average of £12,000 per week.

At the end of the financial year in March, 21 youngsters were being supported by Barnsley Council - a rise on the previous year’s 13.

A total of £8.5m was spent on children in care in a 2025/26, with the council admitting it’s ‘heavily reliant’ on external accommodation.

Children’s services is one of the local authority’s costliest directorates, with care and safeguarding provisions exceeding its budget by £10.3m.

A report said: “This is predominantly due to pressures in children in care (£8.5m) and other pressures within the wider children’s social care budget (£1.8m).

“The council continues to be heavily reliant on high-cost external residential and independent foster agency placements.

“At the start of 2025/26 the council planned for a closing position of 372 looked-after children, however, as of March 31 the number totalled 410.

“The current cohort of children and young people in residential

placements includes 21 high-cost placements (over £8,000 per week), with the average of those being £12,090 per week.

“In contrast, as of March 2025, there were 13 children in high-cost placements at an average of £10,000 per week.

“The council continues to work hard to mitigate these financial risks through early help so that children are supported to remain with their families where safe to do so or, where it is appropriate to intervene, to do so early and support them to live with extended family members.”

Through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, new laws are being brought in to increase the transparency of private providers over their finances, with a backstop provision to introduce a profit cap if providers don’t voluntarily bring an end to exploitative practices.

In an attempt to reduce costs, the recruitment of more foster carers is ongoing, although challenges are being faced.

“This remains difficult due to an extremely limited supply of suitably qualified and experienced carers to care for our older children and those with more complex needs,” the report added.

“This in turn creates additional cost pressures as external placements continue to attract a premium due to the competitive residential market.

“This is not a Barnsley-specific problem and is a widely recognised national issue which the ongoing children’s social care reforms aim to address.”

A spokesperson from the Action For Children charity said: “There has been a 28 per cent increase in the number of children in the care system since 2011.

“There are a number of reasons for this, including an increase in the number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, and, possibly, the number of children living in poverty, which increases the risk of care entry.

“Research shows that the number of placements costing £10,000 or more per week has risen by more than 1,000 per cent in recent years.

“Rising costs are partly due to the increasing dominance of large private sector providers.

“Alongside a lack of the right placements, high-costs are also symptoms of a poorly-functioning market.”