The inspectorate’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 Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) annual conference in Manchester last week, 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.
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