Government 'set to launch consultation' on unregulated children's homes
Fiona Simpson
Thursday, February 6, 2020
The government is set to launch a public consultation on unregulated children’s homes that would propose banning their use for under-16s and introduce new monitoring arrangements of providers, CYP Now understands.
The Department for Education has been in talks with the Local Government Association (LGA), Ofsted and children’s organisations over proposals to introduce a minimum age of 16 for semi-independent supported accommodation, sources have told CYP Now.
Proposals could also include the introduction of national standards for providers and how compliance with these would be best monitored, sources said. This could see a consultation seek opinions on whether this would be best carried out by Ofsted or through a quality assurance system run and managed by local authorities.
Ministers are set to announce a consultation “in the coming weeks rather than months”, sources added, while the DfE said it was continuing "to look at all the options" to ensure vulnerable children received the right support from care placements and settings.
Campaigners have raised concerns about the safety of young people living in unregulated and unregistered provision following the publication of a number of recent reports that highlighted risks from abusers and criminal gangs towards 16- and 17-year-olds placed in such settings.
One investigation found dozens of examples of children aged under 16 living in unregulated settings. Providing support for under-16s without being registered with the inspectorate is not illegal, but if care is provided this could be an offence.
Ofsted’s director of social care Yvette Stanley said the inspectorate had “been working very closely with the DfE during these discussions".
The aim of talks was “to work out what is the best way forward for this small group of unregistered settings and for 16- and 17-year-old looked-after children as they transition into independent living”, she said.
Stanley added that Ofsted would await the outcome of a DfE consultation before a making a decision on who was responsible for inspecting these settings.
“Each and every player has a part to play in ensuring these provisions are run in the correct way," she said.
“We are looking to the DfE consultation to find out what local authorities and organisations working with care-experienced children and care leavers and care providers think is the best way forward to ensure these provisions are meeting suitable standards."
The LGA confirmed it had been in talks with the government over children’s services, including unregulated and unregistered post-16 provision, but added that “its focus was on increasing the number of placements for young people in care overall”.
The move is understood to have come following discussions between a number of key children’s organisations which concluded that regulation was the best way forward for such provision.
Carolyne Willow, chief executive of charity Article 39, said a consultation would be "very welcome".
She said that the organisation was currently looking at how “children’s rights could be better protected”.
One option would be “for modifications to be made to the quality standards for children’s homes, when the establishment is wholly for children and young people over the age of 16,” she explained.
“Such a move could allow teenagers greater choice, freedom and independence while retaining minimum safeguarding and staffing requirements,” Willow said, adding: “This would inevitably require central government funding so we’re also exploring whether the local authority sufficiency duty around accommodation for children in care should be extended to include obligations on ministers. There would be funding implications for Ofsted too, of course.
“We hope statutory standards and Ofsted registration will be included as options in any government consultation. Given the very serious harm we know some children have suffered, this demands more than a tweaking of current arrangements.
“Any consultation clearly needs to hear directly from children and young people in care, so it must be an open and accessible process which is widely publicised at the local and national level.”
Chief executive of the Independent Children's Home Association Peter Sandiford said he had been in talks with the DfE, LGA and Ofsted separately over issues surrounding unregulated children's home.
Sandiford added that he was not aware of a "co-ordinated response" by the bodies to consult on the issue but said: "Issues surrounding unregulated children’s homes is something that needs to be looked into quickly, it’s not something that can wait until the promised care review.”
In November last year, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson wrote to all local authorities asking them to review their use of unregulated and unregistered settings.
Referencing the letter in a response to questions about a public consultation, a DfE spokesman said: "The Education Secretary has been clear that no child should be in accommodation that does not meet their needs. He has written to all councils setting out his concerns about how some are using unregulated accommodation, reminding them that they are required by law to make sure a child’s placement in care is safe and high-quality.”
Ofsted’s latest annual report shows that inspectors investigated more than 150 potentially unregistered children’s homes in 2018/19.
Around 15 of these homes were not required to register, usually due to them being unregulated homes, the report states.
However, “most of the remaining homes (around 100) should have been registered”, it adds.
The children’s commissioner for England’s recent No Place Like Home report highlighted a 70 per cent increase over the last decade in the number of looked-after children aged 16-plus placed in unregulated semi-independent accommodation.
Latest DfE figures show that on 31 March 2019, 2,790 children were living in semi-independent accommodation not subject to children's home regulations. This figure had increased year-on-year since the same date in 2015 when number stood at 1,240.