Residential child care is being seen in an increasingly positive light. Recent Ofsted inspections show that compliance with the National Minimum Standards for Children's Homes has increased from 54 to 92 per cent. Furthermore, young people themselves regularly report residential child care as their placement of choice. In light of this, and the duty in the Children and Young Persons Act on each local authority to ensure a sufficient supply of placements, along with the progress being made with regional commissioning, we have the opportunity to match needs to placement as we have never done before.
With a needs-led placement strategy, one would expect to see fluctuation. However, for a number of authorities the figures show consistent placement levels year on year. This might be due to statistical effects but there may be other factors involved, such as cost efficiency, driving placements rather than child welfare and development.
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