The Department of Health's Information Centre published the latest figures on costs per child for looked after children. However information is not broken down by age therefore we cannot provide a complete response.
General costs per child for looked after children can be found in the publication 'Personal Social Services Expenditure (PSSEX1 return) and Unit Costs: England 2007-08', which can be accessed via the link below.
http://www.ic.nhs.uk/statistics-and-data-collections/social-care/adult-social-care-information/personal-social-services-expenditure-and-unit-costs:-england-2007-08
Information on the number of children who were in local authority care homes in (a) Leeds, West constituency and (b) Leeds metropolitan district is not collected centrally. The number of children who were placed in children’s homes by Leeds local authority and (c) by all local authorities in England, in each year since 2000, are shown in the table.
In 2000, a new coding system was introduced. For years 1997 to 1999 it was found that the results of the analysis carried out could not accurately identify the number of children who were looked after exclusively in children’s homes.
Number England Leeds 2000 6,400 160 2001 6,100 140 2002 6,000 140 2003 6,000 125 2004 5,900 140 2005 5,600 130 2006 5,300 125 2007 5,200 115 2008 5,200 125 1 Source: SSDA903 return on children looked after. 2 Figures exclude children looked after under an agreed series of short term placements. 3 Figures account for children’s homes only and exclude residential settings not subject to Children’s Homes regulations. 4 Historical data may differ from older publications. This is mainly due to the implementation of amendments and corrections sent by some local authorities after the publication date of previous materials.