Care system 'failing' children by moving them miles from home, campaigner warns

Aged just 15, Jade was moved from Lewisham, in south east London, to a private children’s home in Blackpool, hundreds of miles from her family, friends and the city she grew up in. The move happened quickly, and though Jade was initially only supposed to be in Blackpool for two weeks, she was forced to stay there for a-year-and a-half.

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“I don’t feel like I ever fully settled into Blackpool. I just coped,” she said, adding that she felt powerless over the situation.

“I could scream and shout about how I don’t want to be in Blackpool and shouldn’t be here, but unfortunately that’s how the system’s been created. Young people in the system, we don’t always get a say in how our own lives turn out, which is so unfair.”

Miles from her family, Jade said that she “missed a lot”, including watching her young nephews growing up. “I saw pictures, but I wasn’t able to actually be there at special moments.”

Jade added that the experience forced her to grow up a lot quicker than her peers, adding: “If I wasn’t the independent person I was before moving to Blackpool, I feel like the system would have broken me, and I wouldn’t be here telling my story.”

She urged the government to “do better” for children in care, saying the system is "constantly failing" young people.

“These decisions to move us are made because it costs less, but you need to think about the impact on young people’s lives," she said. "Wake up, this is serious.”

Jade is part of charity Become’s Gone Too Far campaign, which is calling on government and local authorities to address the shortage of local placements, and make a national commitment to stop moving children miles from their homes.

Katharine Sacks-Jones, chief executive of Become, said this is a national problem, adding there is a need for local and national strategies to increase the supply of available placements for children.

“Being moved away, often at short notice, to an area you don’t know at all has a massive impact on children. Young people tell us they feel lonely, isolated, and their schooling is often disrupted as a result of the move.

“We are failing too many children in the care system,” she said. “We need to do our best to give them the best possible start in life.”

In a statement, the Department for Education said: “Local authorities have a responsibility to place children in an environment that is in their best interests, and at present that is usually within 20 miles of their home."

It added that its recent strategy to reform children's social care will see the creation of more placements for children in "high-quality and safe homes".

The statement said: "Our new model for care placements will keep more children close to home networks.”

A Lewisham Council spokesperson said: "Our priority is to always ensure the safety and wellbeing of children in our care and the vast majority of our looked after children are placed in Lewisham or another nearby borough.

"In a minority of cases, we sometimes need to place children and young people in care outside London. Any decision to place a child out of area is always carefully scrutinised and monitored."