Broken Solutions

I’m afraid Veganuary doesn’t really appeal to me (too fond of the dairy products in cakes and pastries, as anyone that knows me will attest), and similarly dry January doesn’t really cut it (too fond of… no, never mind). So, turning to my professional life, what I’d really like to resolve to do is never to use another unregistered or unregulated placement for a child in care. But like most of our new year’s resolutions, I am worried that this one is not going to be sustainable.

We’ve heard a lot recently about such placements; the risks, the costs, the lack of regulatory oversight. Until very recently we hadn’t heard an awful lot from outside of the directors of children’s services (DCS) community about what we could do about it and who might help. Framing the issue, as I have heard, as being about "poor local authority commissioning" or heartless children’s services sending children away from their areas to quickly solve a problem doesn’t bear any resemblance to the reality that DCSs have to deal with on a daily basis. In Hampshire, we have a placement commissioning team who work tirelessly to find placements for children with complex and challenging needs. Like most DCSs, I dread that Friday feeling when our placements manager approaches me with the news that we have tried 150 placements, our own foster care service and residential homes are full and none of the placements in the independent sector are willing to take our young person precisely because of their complex and challenging needs.