Watchdog's stark warning over treatment of children in local authority care

The warning has come from the ombudsman in a report detailing the impact on young people in care and their families when councils “get things wrong”.

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Many of these cases detail the severe emotional impact of poor care by local authorities.

This includes the case of a looked-after child who returned to her foster home when she turned 18 to find her bags packed and was immediately sent to live in a hostel.

“On the day she moved, she was surprised to find her belongings had been packed up. She was put in a taxi alone and sent to the hostel,” found the report, called Careless: Helping to improve council services to children in care.

In this teenager’s case, Southwark Council was criticised for its failures support to support the teenager and was ordered to pay her £6,000.

Among the most harrowing cases detailed is the failure by Cornwall Council in 2018 to support for a homeless teenager with a history of mental health problems and drug abuse.

The boy was handed a tent to live in after being evicted from his supported accommodation. His weeks-long ordeal of being forced to live in a tent left him emaciated and resulted in him being detained in a psychiatric hospital for a year.

Another case involved failures by Birmingham City Council earlier this year over contact arrangements between a boy in long-term foster care and his mother and grandmother. His family were not sent minutes of statutory review meetings and their views were ignored, the ombudsman found.

Councils also need to ensure that kinship carers are supported, warns the ombudsman.

The LGO report cites criticism of Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Council last year when it failed to support a couple caring for their two grandchildren because they daughter had a history of mental health problems.

Lucy Peake, chief executive of kinship care charity Grandparents Plus welcomed the LGO’s report in highlighting the role kinship carers play in supporting children who cannot live with their parents.

“Usually these children should be classed as being looked-after by the local authority and they should receive the support that friends and family foster carers are entitled to.

“Our advice service supports thousands of kinship carers every year and we are contacted frequently by kinship carers who feel they were misled by their local authority into believing they were informal carers for the children and therefore have no entitlement to the same levels of support as friends and family kinship carers."

The LGO’s report cites a number of examples of good practice that councils are urged to follow.

This includes reviewing policies and procedures in areas such as supporting homeless teenagers and placing them with family members.

Young people need clear guidance on the level of service they should expect, how to complain and how to access advocacy support.

Contact with relatives, if in the interests of the child, should also be promoted.

The Local Government Association has said that councils are “being pushed to the brink by unprecedented demand and increasing financial pressures”.

“Looking after vulnerable children is a top priority for councils, which work extremely hard to ensure that all children in care get the love and support that they need to flourish,” said LGA children and young people board chair Judith Blake.

“This report provides useful guidance to help councils continuously improve to achieve this goal."