Children’s charity Become, which is behind the petition, says that nearly 21% – or 18,000 – looked after children in England lived more than 20 miles from their communities in 2022, up from 16% in 2012.
The petition, part of the charity’s #GoneTooFar campaign, is calling on the government to develop a national strategy to help find care placements closer to their support networks.
It demands: "Clear data collection and reporting on why children are being moved miles from home.
"National and local strategies to make sure there are the right homes in the right places, to keep children in care close to the people and places that matter to them."
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Separating children from their communities means disrupted schooling and mental health support, broken connections with siblings and friends, and puts children at higher risk of going missing, according to the charity.
Research from the charity highlights that while on average children in care live 18.5 miles way, some children are placed more than 500 miles from their home, with 800 even moved to another country.
And while some children need distance for safety, most are moved simply because suitable local homes aren’t available, and there’s no tracking of why they are placed so far away.
To counter this, the charity is calling for new data collection and reporting on the numbers of children who are inappropriately moved miles from home, plus increased accountability for national Government and local authorities.
Speaking at the launch of the charity’s Still Too Far report, in 2024, CEO Katharine Sacks-Jones said, “We hear time and again from children in care the devastating impact of being made to move to an area of the country they don’t know. This often happens without warning and sometimes multiple times a year.
“This means moving away from friends, brothers and sisters, school and college – and being left lonely and isolated, at greater risk of exploitation with real consequences for their lives and futures.
“It is unacceptable that with each year that passes, the situation is getting worse with more and more being sent away from the people and places that matter to them. We need a national commitment and strategy so that all children in care have a safe and suitable home in the right area and get the love and stability they deserve”.
Children’s social care costs are councils’ single biggest area of expenditure, with some placements costing £10,000 per week – a major factor behind budget overspends.
Last year, the Government pledged an extra £270mn in early family support services through the Children’s Social Care Prevention Grant, far off the £2.6 bn recommended to fix the system in the Independent review of children’s social care in 2022.
Children placed far from home are likely to have worse mental health, with more than a third of children placed further away having their mental health considered a ‘cause for concern’ by professionals compared with just under three in 10 children in placements which were 20 miles or less, according to data from Strength and Difficulty Questionnaires.
Those who have experienced multiple moves are more likely to be placed far from home – an average of 22 miles for children who experienced two or more moves compared with 16 miles for those with one placement.
The problem is worse for those in private children’s homes, who are two-and-a-half-times more likely to be living far away than those in non-private settings.
