Proportion of privately run children’s homes up by 12 per cent, Ofsted figures show

Between April 2020 and March this year, the figure increased from 1,869 homes to 2,096.

In the same time period, the number of homes run by voluntary sector providers declined by 12 per cent from 160 to 141 homes. 

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The number of homes run by local and health authorities, including those run by trusts on behalf of local authorities, grew by nine per cent compared with March 2020 from 430 to 469 homes. 

The research, based on data from the Department for Education, shows that 33 per cent of all private children’s homes were owned by 10 companies.

The largest company, CareTech Holdings PLC, accounted for almost a tenth of all private children’s homes.

The 21 largest companies owned 880 homes, which is 38 per cent of all private children’s homes. These same companies accounted for 45 per cent of all growth in the private sector this year, according to Ofsted.

The inspectorate also provides a breakdown of inspection gradings for private children’s homes which shows that 15 per cent were graded "outstanding", 65 per cent were graded "good", 18 per cent were graded "requires improvement to be good" and less than two per cent were graded "inadequate".

“The company with the lowest proportion of homes graded outstanding or good was Compass Community Ltd. Over a quarter of its 15 homes were graded requires improvement to be good,” the report states.

However, it adds that the report only takes into account inspections which took place before 31 March this year, amid a pause in inspections due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Routine inspection of social care providers restarted on 12 April 2021. Some settings inspection grades may have improved or declined since 31 March 2021,” it adds.