Research by Cardiff University, published in December 2020 by What Works for Children’s Social Care, found two out of every five young people referred to secure children’s homes for welfare reasons were not offered a place. Instead, children were ending up in alternative accommodation including less secure children’s homes, foster care and unregulated placements.
According to Ofsted, which inspects secure children’s homes (SCHs) in England, there are around 25 children waiting for a place at any one time and that number has jumped during the pandemic.
Around 20 are in Scottish secure units due to the lack of places in England. However, from 2023, Scottish units will only accept placements from local authorities in Scotland.
The shortage of placements is an enduring concern, says Ofsted’s national director for social care Yvette Stanley and means children are regularly placed in provision that does not meet their needs.
“Hardly a week goes by where I don’t get a letter from a High Court judge saying that with reluctance they are authorising a decision to place a child in unregistered provision,” she says.
“These are children who should appropriately be in a secure children’s home so they may be self-harming or have had repeated attempts at suicide.”
Local authorities may work with partners to commission bespoke places. “They are a best-fit placement but not ideal,” says Stanley, who says this increases the risk of distressing placement breakdowns.
The reasons for the shortage of SCH placements are complex and include the fact that the sector has been left to market forces and homes are expensive to build and run with lots of risk involved.
Vulnerable children serving custodial sentences or remanded in custody can be placed in SCHs by the Youth Custody Service (YCS) with just over 100 places currently contracted to the Ministry of Justice.
Children can also be placed by local authorities on welfare grounds under Section 25 of the Children’s Act 1989.
However, there is no national commissioning of welfare placements. All referrals from councils in England and Wales go through the Secure Welfare Commissioning Unit (SWCU) managed by Hampshire County Council on behalf of the Department for Education, which helps match children with vacancies.
The latest figures on all SCH placements show there were just over 250 places as of February 2020 – before the pandemic. Of those, 90 per cent were not available due to staffing shortages and refurbishment. Meanwhile, just 73 per cent were occupied.
SCH providers determine the type of places they offer – whether YCS or welfare, boys only, girls only or mixed – and managers assess whether they can meet the needs of a particular child before offering a place.
Challenging mix
While there has been a dramatic fall in the number of young people in custody in recent years SCHs are seeing increasing numbers of children affected by child sexual exploitation, criminal exploitation and involvement in gangs.
Meanwhile, a shortage of specialist provision for children with complex mental health needs means they are often referred to SCHs.
This is a challenging mix to manage requiring high staff ratios, specialist, up-to-date facilities and skilled workers. It is a demanding job and recruitment is an issue.
While local authorities have a statutory duty to access secure placements when required there is no absolute duty to provide secure accommodation in their area.
Many lack the will or expertise to operate these highly complex facilities.
The number of SCHs in England and Wales has fallen steeply with 16 homes closing since 2002. There are currently 13 in England and one in Wales.
Ofsted inspects the 13 in England twice a year supported by the Care Quality Commission, which assesses health and mental health provision.
The latest data shows two are rated “outstanding”, seven “good”, and four “requires improvement”.
“The best secure children’s homes have managers and staff who are skilled at working in partnership with others including health and education colleagues to wrap services around the child and create the environment where they can feel safe, supported and start to build their recovery,” says Stanley.
“Where we see weaknesses it is sometimes following a change of leadership or a significant turnover of staff.”
She says each home had at least one on-site visit during the pandemic.
Children’s experiences
An Ofsted briefing looking at the experiences of children in 12 out of the 13 homes in England found staffing shortages had caused problems but there was a concerted effort to ensure children were safe, supported and their views heard.
This was in stark contrast to secure training centres and young offender institutions where inspections during the pandemic raised serious welfare concerns.
A move to a national commissioning model for welfare placements along the lines of the YCS arrangement has been under consideration by the DfE for a number of years but has yet to happen.
A pan-London project supported by all 33 boroughs is putting together a business case to provide 36 placements in smaller units to address the fact there are currently no places in London.
Many have hopes pinned on the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, announced by the government in January, to offer a future vision.
In the meantime, the government has promised an additional £24m investment in 2021/22 to expand capacity in SCHs.
Stanley says the money will enable the creation of some new places as well as the refurbishment of existing homes.
“We think that is the start of what will need to be a broader programme which we hope will be picked up by the care review,” she says.
“One of our big asks would be that the provision map for these very vulnerable children is looked at and future planning builds capacity so we have the right number of places in the right bits of the country.”
COUNTY DURHAM SECURE HOME CONTINUES TO ‘EVOLVE’ TO REMAIN ‘OUTSTANDING’
Aycliffe Secure Centre, run by Durham County Council, was judged “outstanding” in all areas following its last full inspection in September 2019.
“Care, health and education staff provide children with outstanding support and individualised care,” says the report.
An assurance visit by Ofsted in November 2020 found high standards had been maintained despite the difficulties posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The home can accommodate up to 38 children and young people aged 10 to 17. It provides places for up to eight young people placed by the Youth Custody Service and 30 placed by local authorities for welfare reasons.
It is divided into five houses and during the pandemic young residents stayed in their house bubbles.
Throughout the crisis centre manager Selwyn Morgans says communication with young residents has been key in helping them stay safe and address any concerns.
Staff used technology to help children and young people keep in touch with families, professionals, and each other and worked creatively to keep activities and education going.
Positives include a 75 per cent reduction in behaviour requiring physical interventions or isolation, and self-harm.
Meanwhile, children and young people’s educational attainment has come on leaps and bounds with many making rapid progress in English and maths. “There is a view we should keep them in bubbles for education,” says Morgans.
He believes the key to the centre’s success is its staff and their child-centred approach.
“Our philosophy is ‘exceptional parenting’ so we need to go the extra mile for our young people,” he says.
The centre recently rolled out Secure Stairs training on developmental trauma and parenting young people with complex needs to staff including maintenance, facilities management and admin staff.
Over the past year the centre has developed its use of psychological formulation with input from different agencies and professionals, young people and parents.
“It has given us a much greater understanding of the history and the journey young people have been on, what their strengths are and what strategies we need to adopt to help them,” explains deputy centre manager Anne Haigh.
Young people have access to a wide range of health services including a speech and language therapist who plays a key role in assessing young people’s needs and helping teaching staff tailor their approach.
“More of our children have got academic qualifications because education has been tailor-made for their learning styles and needs,” says Haigh.
The home has continued upgrading facilities including bathrooms and kitchens during the pandemic as well as working on plans for a transition home due to open in July 2022.
A registered children’s home, it will accommodate young people from Aycliffe no longer on secure orders.
“We find local authorities can’t find places easily for children once they have been in secure accommodation,” says Morgans.
He says the team is always looking for ways to improve the service it offers.
“We know outstanding in 2019 will not be outstanding in 2021 so we have to constantly keep evolving,” he says.
INSPECTIONS SHORTS
SOCIAL CARE
Ofsted has announced a phased return to inspection of local authority children’s services starting with routine monitoring visits from May to those rated “inadequate”. Regular focused visits to councils will resume in June at the earliest with standard inspections expected to re-start before the end of the summer term, prioritising “inadequate” authorities likely to move out of that grade. Short inspections of authorities previously judged “good” or “outstanding” will resume in the autumn. The regulator also announced routine inspections of social care providers will start on 12 April.
EDUCATION
Effective communication with families and carers is crucial when it comes to ensuring remote education works for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), says Ofsted. This is one of the main messages in a new video featuring inspectors discussing good practice. The resource, which comes with a slide pack, also highlights the importance of structure, routine and consistent support. Not all children with SEND will have been able to return to their education setting when schools re-opened last month.
YOUTH JUSTICE
Kensington and Chelsea Youth Offending Team has been rated “good” overall by HM Inspectorate of Probation following a routine inspection. Inspectors rated many elements of the service “outstanding”, including governance and leadership and partnership working, but said more work was needed to improve assessment of the risk of harm posed by young offenders. “This is an ambitious organisation that continually strives to strengthen provision and learn from mistakes,” said the report, published last month.
SOCIAL CARE
Children living in children’s homes are slightly less likely than their peers to be attending a “good” or “outstanding” education provider, new research from Ofsted has found. The research – based on a sample of 2,600 looked-after children – found 82 per cent attended education provision rated “good” or “outstanding” compared with 84 per cent of children nationally. The gap was wider for children who attended state-funded mainstream and special schools.
EARLY YEARS
Reporting cases of Covid-19 will not prompt a regulatory visit from Ofsted, early years providers have been told. Settings must report confirmed cases of the virus among children or staff to Ofsted as soon as possible. However, the regulator has updated guidance to make it clear this will not result in a regulatory visit.
