Number of children in illegal placements has fallen since last year, finds Children’s Commissioner

In a report published last week (11 January), the Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, warned that although this figure alone offers a “glimmer of hope”, the costs of unregistered placements remain “staggeringly high”, and many are putting children at an “increased risk of harm”.

According to the data, over the past 12 months, councils have spent an estimated £353 million putting some of the country’s most vulnerable children in illegal homes - which include caravans, holiday rentals, or Airbnbs.

Meanwhile, the Children’s Commissioner found that some of the children from the latest data were also included among the data in the previous year.

She said: “That means not only were they living in deeply inappropriate, illegal settings 12 months ago, but they were still there on 1st September [2025].

“It means that within that time, no one at the local authority responsible for their care had found a legal, safe solution for their care – either because none were available, or because no one had tried hard enough.”

The data revealed that more children compared with last year were in illegal placements that had each already cost more than £1 million by 1 September 2025.

Further, it found the use of holiday camps and activity centres to accommodate children illegally has risen from the previous year, putting children in placements with minimal facilities.

Dame Rachel de Souza said: “In the year since I published my first report on the use of illegal children’s homes, there have been some notable opportunities for change. Primarily, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill introduced to Parliament shortly after that first publication in December 2024, includes important measures that – if successful – will strengthen oversight, including new enforcement powers for Ofsted to issue civil penalties against providers operating unregistered children’s homes. It also amends Section 25 of the Children Act to create new forms of accommodation where children can be deprived of liberty when necessary to keep them safe.

“However, these provisions are not yet in force – and there remains a need for clarity over how swiftly they will bring about change, as well as a question over whether a fine will act as sufficient deterrent to force multi-million-pound private companies to change their business practices.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We want all children in care to be in loving homes, where they get the support they need and are helped to form trusting lifelong relationships. That’s why we’re investing £2.4 billion in the Families First Partnership programme to keep families together, and to prevent children from entering the care system.

“Our Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is the most ambitious piece of child protection legislation in a generation and will bring important additional safeguards for those children who are in care – and we will be setting out more details soon on how we plan to expand the choices of homes and to regulate the sector.

“Running an unregistered children’s care home is illegal and all providers must be registered with Ofsted. It is vital that there is robust regulation of the sector and the Bill will give Ofsted the power to issue fines and take decisive action against illegal providers.”

Lottie Winson