Rising demand and lack of suitable accommodation sees councils struggling to meet legal duty to house children in need of care: Ofsted

A lack of enough suitable accommodation, and the need to find placements quickly, mean local authorities often struggle to plan for and meet their legal duty to offer sufficient accommodation for children in need of care, Ofsted has warned.

In a report published last week (18 November), How local authorities plan for sufficiency of accommodation that meets the needs of children in care and care leavers, the watchdog said: “Difficulty forecasting demand and the need for urgent placements leaves local authorities with little option but to respond to individual cases as and when they arise.”

Some local authorities told Ofsted that a lack of time and resources for forward planning resulted in a last-minute response when a child comes into care. However, even when local authorities can plan, "there is often a lack of available accommodation and care for children with more complex needs".

Councils also reported tensions in their relationships with some private providers and their ‘power’ over the children’s social care market.

“Some suggested that providers can cherry-pick certain children, making it difficult for them to follow their plan and fulfil their sufficiency duty. Conversely, other local authorities highlighted how positive relationships with providers mean they are better able to find homes for children with more complex needs and negotiate the cost of placements,” Ofsted said.

The research also found:

• unregistered provision was used too often because of a lack of suitable regulated alternatives. “Too many children, particularly those with the most complex needs and including those deprived of their liberty by court order, are living in unregistered provision. This provision has no regulatory oversight of the suitability and experience of the staff, the facilities or the care arrangements.”
• many local authorities do not evaluate their sufficiency strategies effectively. “Often, these evaluations are too narrow, typically focusing only on reviewing individual cases where something went wrong. Local authorities do not always review and learn from positive experiences. Also, they do not always evaluate their strategies in a broader way. Many social workers believe that some of the learning they share from individual cases, good and bad, gets lost without a strategic approach to evaluation.”
• social workers said that they were able to advocate for children’s best interests, even when that went against the local authority’s overall strategic approach. “However, a lack of suitable provision often limited local authorities’ ability to remain child-centred.”
• local authorities’ knowledge about providers and agencies is often held by individuals, which can be lost when there are staff changes.
• some local authorities are concerned about the ageing population of foster carers in their area and their ability to plan for long-term placements.

Yvette Stanley, Ofsted’s National Director for Regulation and Social Care, said: “[This] report lays bare some of the challenges facing local authorities when it comes to finding the care children need. More children are coming into care, many with high-level physical and mental health needs. The need to find places for these children quickly overrides local authorities’ long-term planning.

“It is clear that these findings are set against the issues affecting children’s social care nationally, and local authorities cannot solve the sufficiency issue on their own. There is a lack of suitable homes in the right places, particularly for children with the most complex needs – this needs to be addressed.”