In total, the 3,491 children’s homes of all types were registered for 14,486 places. This represents a 7% increase in potential capacity since 31 March 2023, when there were 13,528 registered places in total, compared with a 5% increase last year.
This “continues the long-standing trend of the number of new homes rising faster than the number of new places”, according to the statistics.
Since 2014, the number of children’s homes of all types has increased by 70%, from 2,057 to 3,491. Over the same period, the number of places has increased by a quarter from 11,594 to 14,486.
Supported accommodation
Ofsted puts this growth down, in part, to a new duty on supported accommodation providers to register with Ofsted with inspections on such provision set to begin later this month (September).
On 31 March this year, there were 258 active supported accommodation providers.
The majority of these were privately owned with voluntary and local authority providers making up 7% and 3% respectively. The North West had the largest proportion of providers at 21% of the England total.
From April 2023, providers of supported accommodation were able to register with Ofsted with those that submitted a complete application and paid the application fee by 28 October 2023 able to operate legally while their registration is considered. Those that have applied since, or paid the fee after 28 October 2023, must be fully registered to operate.
Campaigners, including the Children’s Home Association, have raised concerns that continued use of supported accommodation for 16- and 17-year-olds will create a two-tier system with some calling for the practice to be banned for all children up to the age of 18.
Ofsted’s guidance around the use of supported accommodation for older teenagers states that “this type of provision is not automatically the right choice for young people aged 16 and 17. Where young people of this age have needs that would best be met in a children’s home or foster care placement, that is where they should be placed”.
According to latest data from the inspectorate, 8,980 children were living in supported accommodation on 31 March 2023 – the equivalent of 41% of all 16- and 17-year-olds in care.
Placement sufficiency
The Children’s Homes Association’s (CHA) state of the sector survey, published in May 2023, warns that despite an increase in the number of potential placements available in children’s homes “the level of growth of capacity among providers is far below what was expected”.
“Workforce issues, uncertainty around government plans, lack of confidence that local authorities will recognise and reimburse cost increases, and negativity amongst media and senior sector figures are some factors driving caution,” the report warns.
The analysis, undertaken by Revolution Consulting for the CHA, shows that 28% of providers had an occupancy rate of 95% or higher, the highest level recorded by the survey since its launch in 2015.
Speaking at the annual conference of the Association of Directors Children’s Services (ADCS), 2023/24 president Andy Smith warned delegates that “the sector is in the midst of a placement sufficiency crisis.
“We don’t have enough placements, in the right locations, that meet the needs of children and young people today,” he explains.
He criticised plans under the previous government – stemming from the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care – for regional care co-operatives to help manage local authority sufficiency of children’s residential care placements.
Pilot areas for the co-operatives are set to be announced this autumn. According to Department for Education documents, published under the previous government, they will “plan, commission, and deliver children’s social care placements and are part of a broader package of measures to transform the care placement market”.
High costs
A recent report by the Local Government Association (LGA) warns that councils face a £6.2bn funding gap over the next two years due in part to rising pressures on children’s services including the high costs of children’s residential care placements.
A separate LGA report, published in November last year, finds that the number of children’s social care placements costing £10,000 or more per week has risen over five years.
There were 120 such placements in 2018/19, rising to 1,510 in 2022/23. The proportion of councils with at least one of these placements has increased from 23% to 91% over the same period.
The highest cost placement was £63,000 a week. For most councils the highest cost fell between £9,600 and £32,500 a week.
Nearly every council reported that a lack of choice in placements was driving the high prices.
More than nine in 10 councils also highlighted children needing help with increasingly complex needs, including mental health needs or exhibiting challenging behaviours, as a factor.
A report by Bradford City Council’s executive board, published in July, highlighted a £42mn overspend at Bradford Children and Families Trust partly attributed to residential placements for children in care.
Elsewhere, East Sussex Council leaders have called for a cap on profits made by private companies through children’s social care placements in a bid to reduce a £55mn funding gap facing the authority next year.
According to Ofsted’s latest figures, on 31 March, private companies ran 83% of children’s homes and provided 77% of places while local authorities ran 13% of children’s homes and provided 16% of places.
In the past five years, there has been a 70% increase in private-sector homes, a 10% increase in voluntary-run homes and a 7% increase in homes run by local authorities.
Private-sector run homes currently account for 89% of children’s home registrations, voluntary homes for 5% and local authority homes for 6%.
Parts of the sector, including the ADCS, have long-called for a ban on companies that make a profit from running children’s homes.
CHA chair Mark Kerr told the association’s annual conference in July: “Profit shouldn’t be a dirty word ‘profiteering’ we don’t support.”
The CHA banned private equity firms which own children’s homes from becoming association members earlier this year and opened up membership to local authorities.
While the new government has yet to commit to a policy around profit making in children’s social care, the previous government set up an expert working group, led by former director of children’s services for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Steve Crocker, to examine ways to tackle “excessive profiteering”.
Welsh legislation
The CHA’s state of the nation survey also warns that “in Wales, new openings by providers have almost entirely stopped” following the publication of the Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill.
The Bill, which is still being passed through the Senedd, would permit only not-for-profit organisations and councils from providing fostering, children’s home or secure accommodation placements.
CHA head of policy and strategy, Jen Robbins, told the organisation’s conference that “there is no evidence to suggest that the removal of private children’s homes providers will enhance social value in the short or long term”.
It will “not only worsen the sufficiency crisis in Wales but directly impact the wellbeing and life chances of children for whom the Welsh government has a duty of care”.
The CHA estimates that if the Bill is passed during the next parliament, it could cost local authorities around £350mn to implement the policy.
Geographical spread
Ofsted’s latest report on children’s social care in England highlights huge regional disparities around the availability of mainstream children’s homes, which excludes secure children’s homes and residential special schools registered as children’s homes.
A quarter of all mainstream homes are situated in the North West, the figures show, with just 6% in London and 7% in the South East.
The South East Region offers the lowest number of places with just 731 available compared with 2,823 in the North West and 1,940 in the West Midlands.
Speaking at the ADCS annual conference, Yvette Stanley, Ofsted’s national director of social care told delegates that the figures reflected a “lack of control” by the inspectorate of the geographical spread of homes.
Last year, charity Become launched its Gone Too Far Campaign calling on the government and local authorities to address the shortage of local placements, and make a national commitment to stop moving children miles from their homes.
Expert view: Case for placements close to home
Clare Bracey, director of policy, communications and campaigns at Become
We’ve got a care system in England that is really struggling with more children coming into care and simply not enough placements that are suitable for children to live, causing huge pressure on local authorities.
Over the last decade, 62% of children in care have been moved more than 20 miles away from home. As part of Become’s Gone Too Far Campaign we aim to understand the impact this is having on children.
Children are being moved without any say in what’s happening to them, not because it’s in their best interests but because there aren’t any other suitable local alternative options. This results in what we would call an inappropriate move.
The young people that we’ve been working with on the campaign have mostly been moved to children’s homes in different parts of the country. A huge concern here is that they end up living in areas where their cultural identity is not recognised and they risk feeling “othered” in that community.
The timing of these moves also has huge impacts on children - young people are being moved just when they’ve chosen their options for their GCSEs, for example, which leaves them either getting long taxi journeys to school or local authorities trying to find a new placement for them at short notice. Others have been moved when they have just accessed other public services, like mental health support, at a time when waiting lists are incredibly long and some have to start the process again.
We need urgent action and accountability on this issue, including a national strategy, published by the government, to work towards ending the number of children being placed in inappropriate distance placements.
Further reading
- 2023 State of the Sector Survey, Children’s Home Association, May 2023
- Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill Explanatory Memorandum, Welsh Government, May 2024
- Report of the Director of Finance to the meeting of the Executive to be held on 17th July 2024, Bradford City Council, July 2024
- Main findings: children’s social care in England 2024, Ofsted, July 2024
- Local Government White Paper, Local Government Association, June 2024
