The Children's Commissioner has blasted a 'national scandal' of children being housed 'illegally' (Image: Pixaby)
Councils are spending nearly ￡440million a year housing youngsters in “illegal children’s homes”, the Children’s Commissioner for England has warned.
Dame Rachel de Souza has condemned the “national scandal” which sees taxpayers pay the equivalent of nearly ￡1,600 per day per child.
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Thirty-three children were in placements that had each cost over ￡1million.
Her scathing new report shows how 775 children – some as young as two – have been housed in accommodation not registered with Ofsted such as holiday camps, activity centres, caravans and holiday rentals.
The Commissioner says companies are putting “exorbitant profits over children’s care and wellbeing”.
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Dame Rachel said: “This is a national scandal. Every night across England hundreds of children are going to sleep in illegal ‘homes’, where they are often isolated and left without appropriate care.
“As Children’s Commissioner, I am deeply alarmed by the widespread and increasing use of illegal children’s homes across England by local authorities, where hundreds of children, if not more, are being placed.”
Warning that her findings could be the “tip of the iceberg”, she said: “Vulnerable children are being failed – this should never be allowed. If we wouldn’t allow it for our own children, we cannot allow it to happen to the children for whom the state is their corporate parent.”
She argues the cost to the taxpayer could be slashed with “earlier intervention in a child’s life” instead of a system that “relies heavily on emergency crisis care”.
“How can we talk about protecting and promoting the early years of a child’s life if we are failing to protect the basic rights of a safe and loving home for the youngest children?” she said.
Her disturbing research found that nearly half of the children in unregistered homes were aged just 11 to 15. Three out of 10 of the children had gone missing on at least one occasion.
Sometimes children stayed on these placements for vastly longer than originally intended. One 28-day “activity placement” ended up lasting nearly 300 days.
Six per cent of children in unregistered placements were unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
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One boy – “Kevin” – who was at risk of “criminal exploitation” and fearful of violence was put in accommodation where, Help at Hand was told, “several individuals working for the home had concerning criminal histories, were under probation services and were not suitably trained and qualified to care for children”.
On another occasion, a teenager who was given a deprivation of liberty order was placed in a caravan for more than two months.
The number of reports to Ofsted of unregistered homes has soared from 144 in 2020-21 to 931 in the 12 months to March.
The Commissioner’s report comes as the Government prepares to introduce its Children’s Wellbeing Bill to Parliament. This is expected to include measures to stop the use of unregistered homes.
The average time spent a child was placed in such accommodation was just over six months.
Dame Rachel says the new legislation is “vital” but she wants it to be “far tougher on those who put profits above protecting children, so that every child goes to bed at night safe, well and surrounded by people who care for them”.
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A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Vulnerable children across the country are being let down by years of drift and neglect in children’s social care, and this government is now gripping the issue, putting children at the centre of policy making to break the unfair link between background and opportunity.
“We will crack down on these illegal settings by giving Ofsted the powers to issue unlimited financial penalties where settings are not registered, alongside their existing prosecution powers, and we are supporting local authorities to ensure there are enough safe placements in their areas.
“Our wide-ranging, ambitious plans to break the cycle of crisis for children in care include introducing a child identifier, making it a requirement for every council to have multi-agency child safeguarding teams, as well as ensuring schools and teachers are involved in safeguarding decisions.”