Ofsted, the UK's education and social care regulator, plans to penalize local authorities that place children in care in unregistered homes. Under the proposed changes, councils could receive a grade of "requiring urgent improvement" and face repercussions in the management of their Children's Services departments.
Sir Martyn Oliver, Ofsted's chief inspector, described the practice of companies operating illegal placements as a "scandal" and stated that these companies will face fines. He indicated that local authorities would be penalized under new inspection plans for continuing to use such facilities. Despite the ban on unregistered children's homes implemented in 2021 following BBC investigations, the use of these illegal placements has persisted and increased. Some local authorities had previously argued they were forced to use unregistered homes due to a shortage of registered placements. However, the supply of registered children's homes has doubled in the past eight years, partly due to private equity and property investor involvement.
Concerns about conditions in these homes remain. Whistleblowers have reported appalling situations, including children being barricaded in rooms. The BBC has reported instances where local authorities spent over £2 million each on single child placements in illegal homes in the past year. Ofsted has faced criticism for not successfully prosecuting any providers since the use of unregistered homes became known about a decade ago, and for significant delays in processing applications for new children's homes, which now can take up to 18 months.
Sir Martyn has pledged to address the issue, stating, "It's simply unacceptable. It's a scandal. It needs to end, and we're going to play our part in it." He has increased the size of the team investigating illegal placements, and three prosecutions are currently underway, with one awaiting sentencing. "I'm saying it's simply not good enough if you use a children's home that's not registered with us, and we will downgrade you if that's the case," he added.
While Ofsted's new powers are intended to make enforcement quicker and more effective, some in the sector argue that enforcement alone will not resolve the problem. Dr. Mark Kerr, Chief executive of the Children's Homes Association, noted that Ofsted needs to address registration delays and focus on individual directors of companies rather than solely on limited companies, to prevent operators from simply closing and reopening under new names.