The Secure Accommodation Network, the organisation that represents the interests of the homes, said there had been an average of 30 vacant beds a night, out of a total of around 150, for the past month. It is considering setting up a web site that will tell local authorities on a daily basis where there are vacant beds.
Mary Graham, chair of the network and manager of the Atkinson secure home in Exeter, said: "We lost three or four secure homes last year and there's a real question mark over another one or two." She was not sure exactly why there had been such a large number of vacant beds in the past month, but said one reason could be that local authorities were reining in their spending as they approached the end of their financial year.
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