Hundreds of vulnerable children languished in “inadequate” children’s homes costing taxpayers £2m a week.
Some are targeted for recruitment by drugs gangs and exposed to “even greater harm” after being taken into care, former Children Commissioner has warned.
Our investigation into what she calls Britain’s “crumbing” care system for children has found that more than £100m of taxpayers money could have been spent on places at children’s homes given the lowest possible rating given by Ofsted inspectors last yeare.
Providers are typically paid at least £200,000 a year for each youngster and we found there were 539 spaces in the 156 homes rated inadequate during the 12 months to March.
One home was rated “good” by inspectors in May 2021 but was suspended by Ofsted just six months later.
One child went missing for four days - after initial checks, staff made no efforts to find them for 48 hours.
The youngster was “known to have been exploited and continues to be at high risk”.
A second was “involved with known drug dealers” and this was blamed for a brick being thrown through a window at the home.
The child told inspectors they “do not feel safe at the home due to the disinterest of staff and managers”.
Former Children Commissioner Anne Longfield told the Mirror that Britain’s most vulnerable children were trapped in a cycle of crisis due to less money and more demand.
A surge in teenagers needing care means that too many are being put into “inadequate care” which Mrs Longfield said was “like a conveyor belt of vulnerable teenagers that we are serving up to exploiters”.
Mrs Longfield, who now chairs the Commission on Young Lives, said: “I think the care system has been struggling and crumbling for all children, under the pressure of extra demand and less resources. It is a cycle of crisis that is unsustainable.
“For teenagers over the last decade I think the care system has been increasingly unfit for purpose “We have older teenagers coming into care and the care system hasn’t been able to modernise and respond to those needs.
“The only people who have responded are the private providers who are making huge amounts of money from vulnerable teenagers.
“If we are going to take a teenager away from their parents and put them in care for their welfare, we can’t just do that and say, ‘it’s all sorted now’. We need to put in place the real protection, high level protection, that assumes the risk hasn’t gone away.
“Some of the teenagers being put into care are being put into a situation of even greater harm because they are put into inadequate care.
“It is like a conveyor belt of vulnerable teenagers that we are serving up to exploiters.
The biggest growth of the last ten years is that a quarter of kids in care are 16 or 17 and the system was never designed for that.”
There are hundreds of care homes for older teens which are not regulated by Ofsted, the official watchdog. It said it has “long been concerned about unregistered children’s homes”.
These “ typically operate in the grey area” when children get ready to leave care and “too many unregistered homes are providing care but avoiding scrutiny”.
Last year it found that more than nine in ten of 595 “possible unregistered homes” it visited should have been registered.
Mrs Longfield said she heard reports that these homes were being targeted and even operated by criminal gangs.
She said: “There are reports not only of people working in that provision but of criminal gangs setting up that provision.
“Those gangs will then have people who are working for them, people who can buy those drugs, people who can bring others in and they get paid thousands of pounds a week for the placement.”
“Over the last five to seven years I have come across several examples or reports where those seeking to exploit children are getting jobs in some of those places where children are looked after.
“Those seeking to exploit children can see a vulnerable child a mile off. They need a constant supply of recruits.
“They target people in care because they know they are vulnerable. They don’t have the networks of support around them.”
Many unregulated homes are set up as “semi-independent living accommodation”,which is designed as a stepping stone between living in care and leading an independent adult life.
But it is not always suitable and Mrs Longfield said: “A lot of 16 and 17 year olds get put into this semi- independent provision just because there hardly any other provision.
“When a local authority looks for a place for a child, for every one that comes up in a registered children’s home there are 15 places in an unregulated care home.”
The number of children’s homes is up by a third in five years. There were 2,880 homes in England with 10,818 places in March 2023.
The cost has increased by 89% from 2015 to 2022, with most of the increase going to private providers, which now runs 85% of all homes.
The Competition and Markets Authority found last year that the biggest private providers were “ making materially higher profits, and charging materially higher prices, than we would expect if this market were functioning effectively”.
They found “a lack of placements of the right kind, in the right places, means that children are not consistently getting access to care and accommodation that meets their needs”.
And they warned some of the biggest firms were burdened with “very high levels of debt”, typically by their private equity owners, with the risk of “disorderly failure” which could “disrupt the placements of children in care”.
Despite the huge increase in the cost of children’s homes to councils, up from £1.1bn in 2015/16 go £2.1bn in 2021/22, there is evidence that standards are slipping over this period.
One in five was failing last year - either rated inadequate or as requiring improvement by Ofted. Just one in ten were rated “outstanding” in March 2023, barely half the number five years ago.
An Ofsted spokesperson said the rating of homes it inspected remained “fairly stable”.
They added: “As we have said for some time, it simply isn’t right that so many children, usually those with the most complex needs, are being placed in unregistered provision with no oversight because of the shortage of suitable placements.
“The lack of suitable homes in the right places needs to be addressed urgently so that our most vulnerable children get the care they need.
“We continue to be concerned about the impact of some companies coming into the market who have no interest in childcare and who buy and sell groups of homes, sometimes relatively quickly.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We are working with Ofsted and the sector to develop a robust financial oversight regime, to ensure we have greater transparency of ownership, debt structures and profit making, preventing sudden market exit, and making sure that children receive the care that they need.”
Cllr Louise Gittins, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, said: “While a diverse market is important to ensure we have the homes children need, we have significant concerns about profiteering by some of the largest providers. Children’s social care funds must be spent on improving the lives of children.”
Four firms blasted by regulator
- Calcot Services for Children
At one home, inspectors said a knife was found in a child’s bedroom. A child from another home assaulted a four-year-old, according to the Ofsted report.
Of six inadequate homes run by Calcot, three have closed, one is still inadequate and two are rated “good”. Its two other homes are both rated good. Owners Harvinder and Sukhbir Singh were paid £2m dividends in two years and £615,384 in directors’ salaries last year.
Calcot previously said it prioritises safeguarding.
- Aston Children’s Care
At one Birmingham home run by Aston, Ofsted inspectors said: “Children were witness to staff arguing about who was going to provide care to them in a derogatory manner.”
Aston’s four homes were rated inadequate last year. One has closed, two are now rated good and the other as “requiring improvement”.
Director Mahesh Mehan said: “We have invested into the business, made changes within the management team and focused on up-skilling the workforce.”
- Apex Childrens Services
At a home in Wigan, a child said she had been assaulted by a professional, according to Ofsted. At a home on the Wirral, a child reported being assaulted by a staff member.
Both homes were later rated good, as was a third.
All three have closed, Ofsted reports.
The firm’s fourth home is “inadequate”. We were unable to contact Apex.
- Platinum Services for Children
Three of its four homes were rated inadequate last year. Two closed. The surviving two are now “requiring improvement”.
Platinum owner Leonard Pattinson did not respond to a request for comment.
