“End illegal children’s homes placements by 2030” – CHA calls for national plan

Yesterday’s BBC in-depth investigation Why illegal children’s homes are being paid up to £2m per child by councils highlights the stark reality behind illegal children’s homes: local authorities are too often making crisis decisions because the right lawful placements simply do not exist.

The Government’s ‘Delivering the social care reset' implementation plan, also published yesterday, recognises some of the pressures facing the system, but CHA believes it still falls short of setting out the specialist capacity, therapeutic infrastructure and coordinated national recovery pathways needed to end the use of illegal placements in practice.
 

The Children’s Homes Association is calling for a national plan to ensure illegal children’s homes are designed out of the system by 2030.

The Children’s Homes Association (CHA) is calling on the Department for Education and local authorities to work with CHA, its members and the wider sector to implement a national plan to end the use of illegal children’s homes by 2030. 

CHA says illegal placements are neither a placement model, a specialist solution, nor an acceptable emergency workaround. They are what happens when the care system runs out of options for some of the country's most vulnerable children.

Illegal placements have become a hidden emergency system 

Recent evidence from the Children’s Commissioner, Ofsted, ARU and Commonweal/Public First shows, from different angles, the same picture: illegal placements have become a hidden emergency system for children with the highest levels of need. These include children affected by exploitation, violence, trauma, mental health crises, repeated placement breakdowns, hospital discharge or custody release.
Some arrangements may be caring and well-intentioned, while others are clearly not. That is exactly the problem. If a setting is outside regulation, the state cannot reliably tell which is which.

A tough stance on illegal provision is vital  - but enforcement alone is not enough

CHA welcomes Ofsted’s tougher stance on illegal provision, including a growing focus on local authorities that place children in unlawful settings. 

Following constructive discussions between CHA’s CEO Dr Mark Kerr, Sir Martyn Oliver and Yvette Stanley, CHA is encouraged that Ofsted recognises both the seriousness of the issue and the need to address it through inspection, regulation and system leadership. 

But enforcement alone will not solve the problem.

CHA blueprint to set out lawful recovery pathway 

Local authorities often make desperate decisions at the brink of crisis because the right lawful placement does not exist or is not available.  Ofsted can and should make illegal placements unacceptable. But the Department for Education, local authorities and registered providers must work together to make them unnecessary.

That is why CHA will publish its sector-led blueprint in June. The blueprint sets out a lawful, health-led stabilisation and recovery pathway for high-need, high-risk children — built around regional capacity, specialist therapeutic homes, outreach, step-down support and shared standards — to ensure children in acute crisis are not left waiting for the system to improvise. The blueprint’s purpose is simple: replace placement panic with a planned, lawful, clinically supported pathway. 

What CHA is calling for by 2030

CHA is calling for a national 2030 plan that includes:

• Mandatory real-time notification to Ofsted whenever a child is placed in an illegal setting
• A specialist sufficiency plan for children with complex needs
• Faster registration for high-quality providers
• Improved commissioning, and a formal partnership between DfE, Ofsted, local authorities, Regional Care Cooperatives, registered providers and housing partners.

Dr Mark Kerr, Chief Executive Officer of The Children’s Homes Association, said:

“Illegal children’s homes are not a placement model. They are what happens when the lawful care system runs out of options.

“Ofsted is right to take a tougher stance. A child in care should never be invisible to regulation.

“But we will not solve this by blaming councils or by pretending that enforcement alone will build the homes children need. Local authorities are often forced to make impossible decisions because the right registered placement simply is not available.”

“CHA’s message is simple: make illegal placements unacceptable and work with us to make them unnecessary.”

“That is why CHA will publish our sector-led blueprint in June. It is a practical plan for a lawful, health-led stabilisation pathway for the children most likely to be pushed into illegal settings.”

“These are children in trauma, crisis and danger. They do not need the system to panic. They need the system to respond.”

“We are calling on the Department for Education and local authorities to work with CHA, Ofsted and the wider sector to develop a practical plan to design illegal placements out of the system by 2030.”

CHA says the aim is not to criticise local authorities but to end the conditions that drive unlawful decisions.

Dr Kerr added:

“The state is the corporate parent. No parent would knowingly place their child in an illegal setting.

“By 2030, illegal children’s homes should have no place in England’s care system. That will only happen if we build what children actually need.”

 

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Media enquiries: 

• Media contact: Sophie Crewdson | Media@the-cha.org.uk  | 07974 081 549 
• Dr Mark Kerr’s Personal Assistant  - Naomi Bowler - Naomi.bowler@the-cha.org.uk | 07498 959 731

ABOUT THE CHILDREN’S HOMES ASSOCIATION 

The Children’s Homes Association is the voice of registered providers of residential child care services across England and Wales. We are a Not-for-Profit Limited Company.
The Children’s Homes Association represents both large and small providers with membership drawn from the public, private and voluntary sectors. Some members have just one home whilst others have many homes across a wide geographic area.  
Our membership criteria excludes providers who are not ultimately owned in the UK, who do not pay tax in the UK or who receive loans or investments originating from a tax haven.  

WHAT WE DO

We provide knowledge, expert guidance, resources and day-to-day support to our members as we work together to deliver exemplary residential child care.
We work directly with local and national government, regulators and allied public services, consulting on policy and changes within the sector.
We ensure that the voices of our members are heard, through consultations, government responses and liaison with the media.

We actively develop partnerships, collaborations and professional communities to share best practice – for the benefit of our members, the sector and all those cared for within it.
Our leadership and associates bring together vast expertise across the many aspects of providing and managing residential child care, with a fearlessly child-centred approach.