A council which spent £42.31 million on care places for children last year is looking at whether it can provide more homes itself to cut costs.

A freedom of information request submitted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) in the summer, revealed £32.24 million of that total spent by Cheshire East Council was paid to private providers, other local authorities and voluntary sector organisations.

On Monday (November 10) the children and families committee scrutinised the predicted year-end £8.86 million overspend in children's services.

Councillors were told while the numbers of children in care are reducing, the cost of placements continues to rise.

Cllr Jos Saunders (Poynton, Con) asked: "Is it time for us to have a radical rethink of how we provide that care?

"I know we've got two children's homes of our own which have just opened.

"Should we now be thinking of opening more of our own? I don't know, but at the moment, we're still racking up such high costs."

Committee chair Laura Crane (Sandbach, Lab) said the soaring cost of placements is outside of the council's control.

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"There are conversations to be had about capital expenditure on additional children's homes," she said.

"And I'm sure, absolutely positive, that if we can make a business case for one of those, then the transformation fund, which has been put aside for children's services, will spend because if that is going to deliver as a saving in coming years, then absolutely it is the right thing to be doing."

Macclesfield councillor Sarah Bennett-Wake (Lab) said the public needed to know the council isn't deliberately over-spending money.

"It's our statutory duty to look after our children and young people," she said.

Cllr Bennett-Wake referred to a report from the National Audit Office which had revealed seven out of 10 children's homes are owned by private equity firms and these companies are making 23 per cent profit.

"We're protecting our children and safeguarding everybody's business, and I still don't believe they should be making profits out of children's misery," she said.

Cllr Saunders agreed.

"The public do need to understand that we do have statutory duties in terms of placements for children," she said.

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"For decades, we have depended on private equity firms, because we don't have places of our own, and until we do, that's what we have to go down."

The freedom of information request submitted by the LDRS also revealed that one private company was charging Cheshire East £15,995 per week for one child who had special needs.

This was the highest individual charge.