CYP Now - Councils opened more than 100 new children’s homes last year, Ofsted figures show

The number of local authority-run children’s homes in England has increased by almost a third over the last year, data from Ofsted shows.

Financial and recruitment pressures are leading to a crisis for children in residential care. Picture: insta_photos/Adobe Stock

Four in five children's homes in England are run by privately-owned companies. Picture: Adobe Stock

In the year to 31 March, 103 new council-run children’s homes opened in England, according to the data – a 31% increase on the number of council-run homes operating a year earlier.

Overall, at the end of March 404 of 3,491 children’s homes of all types actively operating in England were run by local authorities and 32 homes were run by a voluntary organisation running services on behalf of a local authority.

Private providers were running four in five children’s homes with the top 10 largest companies running 26% of all private children’s homes, a fall from 30% in 2023.

The largest of these, CareTech Holdings PLC, accounted for 7% of all private children’s homes, the data shows.

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