To understand the potential factors contributing to the closure of children's homes, we need to consider the current operational pressures for providers generally.
Recruitment
A key factor impacting on sufficiency is that most providers – whether public, private or voluntary sector – are unable to fully staff their children's homes. Open vacancies are at record high levels across health and social care. If as a provider you operate multiple homes, which you can only staff at 70 per cent of preferred levels due to such pressures, without resorting to agency staff, there comes a point where, to ensure a high quality of care, the decision to close some homes and redeploy staff is forced. At the Children's Homes Association (CHA) we have launched a sector-led, national recruitment campaign – the first of its kind and at a time when there has been no national effort to promote careers in our forgotten sector for 30 years. However, despite the announcement of £27m to support recruitment of foster carers, no government funding is available to support such urgent efforts in children's residential care.
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