Why illegal children's homes are being paid up to £2m per child by councils
Summary
Some councils in England are paying very high amounts, sometimes up to £2 million per child per year, to illegal children's homes that are not registered or inspected. Despite a ban on unregistered homes for children under 16, councils continue to place vulnerable children there because of a lack of suitable legal options and rising costs.Key Facts
- Some illegal children’s homes have poor conditions, such as peeling wallpaper and broken doors.
- These homes are not registered or inspected by Ofsted, the government’s children’s services watchdog.
- Councils pay up to £13,000 a week for a child’s care in these illegal homes.
- A 2021 ban was introduced to stop under-16s being placed in unregistered homes, but councils still use them.
- The number of registered children’s homes in England doubled from about 2,200 to over 4,400 in eight years.
- Despite more registered homes, councils place about 800 children in illegal homes due to a shortage of specialist care options.
- The total cost of children’s residential care has doubled in four years and tripled in eight years.
- The NHS sometimes pays half the cost of expensive specialist placements.
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