According to Ofsted study released today, children in the care system are frequently placed in homes far from their relatives because there aren’t enough acceptable options close to where they reside.
According to Ofsted’s report, “What types of needs do children’s homes give care for?,” children who have mental health issues or have experienced abuse and neglect are more likely to have lived far from their homes before entering foster care—more than the typical 36 miles.
According to the report, children are likely living distant from their family because homes are not distributed equally among England’s regions, which means that supply does not keep up with demand.
For instance, although just 7% of all of England’s children’s homes are in London, local authorities there placed 11% of all children in homes there.
However, 25% of all homes (or 23% of places) are located in the North West, where local authorities put 19% of the children residing in children’s homes.
National Director for Children’s Social Care at Ofsted, Yvette Stanley, stated:
According to current studies, this is a nationwide problem. It implies that local governments must choose between putting a child in a nearby household or one that is far away but still meets their needs.
Children require the necessary care to be given to them at the proper time and location.
And for some children, staying close to their family and friends will only be possible with greater needs analysis and planning across health and social care at the national level.
The study by Ofsted, which is based on data as of March 31, 2020, aims to further the discussion about potential obstacles to attaining a sufficient number of spaces in children’s homes.
Among the report’s additional conclusions are:
The kinds of demands that homes said they could meet and their Ofsted inspection scores had no correlation.
Compared to all children in foster care (52%), children residing in children’s homes (80%) had a significantly high percentage of special educational requirements (around 15 percent).
Providers who stated they could accommodate children with complex needs were the most prevalent (93%) while sensory impairment (4%) and complex health needs (5%) were the least common.
The majority of homes (80%) said they could accommodate two or more areas of need, with one fifth (20%) saying they could only accommodate one area.
On March 31, 2020, the majority (83 percent) of the children’s homes in the study were privately owned, up from 69 percent on that day in 2016.