The Guardian view on the care system: stop this cruelty to children
What kind of a country are we, in which the most vulnerable children cannot rely on ministers and councils to treat them well? New research published by the children’s commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, is far from the first time that the system used by local authorities to provide residential care for children has faced strong criticism. The use of unregulated placements, the disruption caused by frequent moves and the damage done to those forced to relocate many miles from their homes, schools and families, have all featured in court judgments and parliamentary and National Audit Office reports as well as in journalism by the Guardian and others.
More extreme cases of abuse and criminality, of a kind which most people hoped belonged to a distant past, recur with disturbing frequency. A children’s home owned by a private equity firm was at the centre of the Rochdale child grooming scandal. This week it was revealed that allegations of drug-dealing at a home run by Care 4 Children in Lancashire has led to arrests. But Ms Longfield’s conclusion, in the piece of work that she has chosen as the finale to her four years in the job, is still startling: the government is guilty of “deep-rooted institutional ambivalence” to the 78,150 children that it is morally and legally obliged to look after.
The majority of children’s homes, whether run by councils or private providers, as well as most private fostering agencies, are judged good or outstanding by Ofsted. But while successes should be welcomed, it is more important that they are emulated. Evidence shows that this is not happening. Instead, commissioning remains disjointed and poorly planned, with large variations between areas and costs rising by 22.5% between 2013-14 and 2017-18. Private providers’ profit margins are estimated to be 17% (the opaque financial structures of some companies make definitive figures elusive). Meanwhile, the number of children in care continues to rise ( by 21% since 2010) and council budgets face relentless squeezing. This week the County Councils Network revealed that 27% of its members are planning moderate to severe reductions in children’s services.
The consequences will be painful. Already, teenagers are being treated appallingly, housed in flats where they are overseen by teams of unknown agency staff, according to Ms Longfield. In 2018, 5,400 children were moved more than 50 miles from their homes; 8,000 children had at least three placements in a single year. One boy was described as “distraught” at being told he must vacate his foster home with a few hours’ notice because the place was needed by a younger child.
Later this month Ms Longfield will present her proposals at an online seminar: Gavin Williamson, the secretary of state who bears overall responsibility for the system, should book a place. There is no need to wait for a longpromised review. A timetable for phasing out unregulated accommodation, including for 16-18s, should be announced now. Councils in the south of England, where there are not enough children’s homes, should be told to start building (with funding announced in the upcoming spending review). The current cost of around £200,000 per child per year means they would quickly pay for themselves. Sending children from there to the north-west, where private operators cluster because property is cheaper, is wrong. At the moment, not only is national and local government failing to provide the care to which all children are entitled: in some cases the service offered more closely resembles abuse.