Ofsted urges national audit of looked-after children’s needs

New research by the inspectorate found that just over half of children living in children's homes had residential care included in their care plan. 

This "illustrates the challenges faced by the children, and by social workers and commissioners trying to find suitable care for them, as well as by the children’s homes that are aiming to meet the children’s needs,” according to the report entitled Why Do Children Go Into Children's Homes?

• Residential Care: Special Report

• Competition authority study raises prospect of commissioning reforms

“Although a children’s home placement had not been the original care plan for just under half of children taking part in the study, around three quarters of these children were found to be well matched to their home,” the report states.

It comes after a report by the Competition and Markets Authority found that private children's home providers were making profits that were "much higher than expected" from the commissioning of placements by local authority.

The findings of Ofsted's latest report indicate a “lack of collective knowledge” around the needs of children in care across the sector, the inspectorate says. This has led to calls for further research to be done, including a national audit of children needs, to provide better understanding of the experiences of children in care, and of the complexities of sufficiency in children’s social care.

“Although the DfE’s national collection of data on children in care captures some information, this is at a very high level and only captures one element of need. 

“To understand sufficiency properly, we must better understand the extent of the needs of children in care, and better understand the dynamics experienced by the children, their carers, local authority senior managers, social workers, commissioners and independent reviewing officers. In order to do this, it is necessary to carry out a proper national audit of the needs of children in care,” the report states.

It also highlights that the needs of children living in children’s homes are “very diverse”, which often meant there were multiple reasons which had led to them being placed in residential care, the inspectorate’s report states.

Of the 113 children included in the study, 41 per cent had experienced a breakdown in foster care placements while 15 per cent of children had experienced a breakdown of a previous children’s home placement and 12 per cent had experienced a family breakdown.

Despite placement breakdowns being the main driver for children entering children’s homes, just one fifth of those were moved into their current placement as an emergency measure.

The report finds that one fifth of children living in children’s homes are in care for the first time.

Yvette Stanley, Ofsted’s national director for social care, said: “This report confirms how important it is that we have a better understanding, at a strategic level, of children’s needs so we can better plan for their futures.

“I’m sure these findings will be valuable to wider conversations and future research on sufficiency – which is about the provision of the right care, in the right place, at the right time, to help children in need of care achieve the best outcomes.”