Kent demands law to ensure councils place children closer to home

Kent County Council is calling for legislation that would put a statutory obligation on councils to place looked-after children no more than 15 miles from their home or school unless by exception.

There are currently 1,267 looked after children placed in Kent by other local authorities with independent fostering agencies and privately registered children's homes.

When combined with the work of supporting its own 1,790 looked after children (including 181 unaccompanied asylum seeking children), the numbers were putting “massive pressures” on public services in the county, Kent said.

In a recent meeting with Children’s Minister Tim Loughton, Kent’s Leader, Paul Carter, and its Cabinet Minister for Specialist Children’s Services, Jenny Whittle, also called for legislation that would:

• require all councils to provide an annual statement to their Local Safeguarding Children Board detailing how many children were placed outside their local authority boundary and more than 15 miles away, and what safeguards had been put in place to protect these children from harm.
• require all 32 London councils to jointly commission fostering placements and residential children home placements in London.

Carter has also written to the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, to arrange a summit between representatives of Kent and London councils. The idea of the summit would be to see how the 32 councils could work together to find foster carers and residential children’s home placements in the capital.

Kent’s Leader has meanwhile raised the issue with the Children’s Commissioner, Maggie Atkinson.

Paul Carter said: "Children in care deserve a better deal and all councils must work much harder to provide placements that enable them to remain in their schools and with their friends, unless there is a threat to their safety. This will minimise disruption in their lives and protect the wellbeing of some of our most vulnerable children."

He added: "There are very good reasons why authorities place some children far away from home – with prospective adopters, with relatives, in specialist residential provision, catering for acute need or disability, that is not available closer. However, there are far too many vulnerable children and young people placed in children's homes and with non-related foster carers miles away from home. It is extremely difficult to be an effective ‘corporate parent’ and look after children placed so far away from home.”

Kent’s Leader also said these young people were at particular risk of being exploited by sex-grooming networks and it was extremely difficult for London boroughs, as the corporate parents, to properly safeguard them if they were placed a long way away.

Philip Hoult