Children's Homes Research
Andrew Rome, director of Revolution Consulting
Tuesday, May 25, 2021
The concerns of London local authorities in meeting sufficiency duties described in the first study and the severity of this in relation to residential children's homes, are recognised as a theme across the country. This study was commissioned by the LGA to look at the policies, barriers, and facilitators for local authorities and smaller independent providers in establishing children's homes.
- Children's Homes Research
- Newgate Research (commissioned by Local Government Association) (January 2021)
Five areas of inter-related barriers are identified:
The perceived role of children's residential care as an option of last resort
A stigma is attached to residential children's homes with roots back to historical abuse, and policy that prioritises adoption and foster care ahead of children's homes. Financial drivers are also recognised as leading placing authorities to have preferences for those alternatives. The consequent use of children's homes as a last resort is associated with poorer outcomes for children and creates a negative spiral or vicious circle of opinion and practice. This impacts significantly on the decision-making processes of providers, on the career and development pathways of social care professionals, and directly and indirectly on those children that are placed in children's homes.
Challenges making a robust business case for investing in children's residential care
Fundamental economic challenges and risks are described. Financial investment in the form of both the capital involved in the properties necessary for children's homes and in the start-up related funding required are substantial. However, without any guarantee over whether the places offered will be used by a local authority there are significantly high risks for investors of all types in children's homes.
Infrastructure, management, and staffing
Identifying, recruiting and acquiring the resources required to operate a children's home present multiple barriers to overcome. Suitably sized and located houses are expensive and can be difficult to locate and to acquire in the face of local community objections. Residential care staff need a wide range of skills and home managers especially so. There is widespread recognition that qualified home managers are in acute short supply.
Complexity of need
Increasing complexity and severity of needs presented by children placed in children's homes put an emphasis on the need for practitioners to be able to match and anticipate the impact of each new placement on the whole group in a home. The tension with the regulator, Ofsted, is noted here, with providers reporting discouragement from taking additional placements that derives from the risk of subsequent inspection downgrading by Ofsted.
Lack of truly co-ordinated and strategic commissioning of children's homes provision
This barrier is recognised by commissioners themselves as well as by providers. Procurement approaches operate at local, sub-regional and regional levels, but lack long-term planning and robust assessment and evidencing of outcomes.
A variety of efforts to address these barriers are described by local authorities and providers. These include Suffolk's Residential Review (including a peer review by Hertfordshire County Council) that raised the profile and confidence of the authority in children's homes and supported a repurposing and reinvestment in additional capacity. Also featured are Hertfordshire's “invest to save” programme looking to refurbish council-owned properties to be used for residential provision. Increases in some regional and subregional commissioning are evidenced.
Some new models of commercial engagement are also emerging including social investment in children's homes via a Community Interest Company, joint ventures between councils and providers, and “open book”-based commissioning of voluntary sector providers.
North Yorkshire's Innovation Programme project, No Wrong Door, is also featured as an example of different types of children's residential provision. This service, although based around a residential care hub and wrap-around services has a focus on children on the edge of care and preventing escalation into full-time fostering and residential care placements.
Implications for practice
- Active recognition, promotion and support for residential care is a fundamental element to a range of support options.
- Greater professionalisation, reward and recognition for staff and managers working in care is seen as an important ingredient to addressing barriers to development of the sector.
- Clear analysis is required, at local authority, regional, and national levels, of the business case for a mixed economy of children's residential provision.
- It would be beneficial to ensure there is a repository of materials and case studies of partnerships between the public and private sectors. There are many different but complex models from which learning could be shared.
- The needs of young people on the cusp of secure services needs further wrap-around support from education, health, youth justice and social care services.
The report concludes with calls on the Independent Review of Children's Social Care to consider the need for legislative change, for a national oversight body, and to recognise the need for continuous spare system capacity, with consequent implications for cost.
