By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter
A new job role is being created to help Nottingham City Council meet new standards to better protect children in care.
The Government is introducing new requirements for providers of supported
accommodation for looked after children and care leavers aged 16 and 17.
Providers, including local councils, will now need to register and be inspected by Ofsted against new national quality standards.
The change is part of the Supported Accommodation Regulations 2023.
Ofsted started to register new providers in April this year, and registration will
become mandatory from October 28.
New inspection rules for supported accommodation will then be introduced in April 2024.
Terry Galloway, a campaigner for care leavers who also provides supported accommodation in Nottingham, described the new regulations as a “good thing”.
He says the option to move a child or young person in care to another local authority area was traditionally permitted to allow them to move back home.
“But what happened [nationally] is local authorities started sending them off to unregulated supported accommodation and 48 children died or were seriously harmed,” he said.
“It was really bleak for some children.
“I’m a care provider and the new regulations are now pretty tough and robust in what you have to demonstrate to be registered.”
The national statutory body for child safeguarding published a report analysing the 48 incidents in 2021.
It found the care system was not equipped well enough to protect children due to high numbers of placements breaking down and unregulated properties being used as emergency accommodation.
However some details of which local authorities held responsibility for some of the children are still unpublished due to what the Government said at the time was a confidentiality issue.
Regulation for children aged 15 and under came into force in September 2021, around the same time as the report, however children aged 16 and 17 were left without any similar protection.
Under the 2023 regulations, local authorities will no longer be permitted to place looked after children aged 16 and 17 in provision that is not registered with Ofsted as supported accommodation.
To help the council in Nottingham implement the changes needed, the Department for Education has granted it £246,279.
Around £47,000 of the grant will be used to pay for a new job role.
The role, assistant manager for support accommodation, will help the authority meet new inspection requirements.
In delegated decision documents the council says: “The purpose of the grant is to provide support to local authorities towards expenditure to support implementation of these changes, for its own provision and to support external providers with their registration and ability to meet inspection criteria.
“Local authorities can use this grant funding to offset the increased costs associated with the impact of these changes.
“The appointment of an assistant manager supported accommodation is vital to ensure that the local authority can meet the requirements of the new inspection framework at its semi-independent home and satellite homes.”
The grant will also be used to support external providers meet their new obligations to ensure children are receiving quality support.
Mr Galloway says registration typically costs around £5,000 and called on the council to start contacting providers with its plans soon.
