News, Politics

Nottingham City Council spending millions placing vulnerable children in unregistered homes

By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter

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Nottingham City Council has spent almost £15 million placing vulnerable children and young people in unregistered care settings over the last three years, new figures show.

Watchdog Ofsted rated the council’s children’s services ‘inadequate’ following an inspection in 2022, and it has been conducting a series of visits over the past two years to keep track of improvements.

After Ofsted’s sixth monitoring in November last year, inspector Margaret Burke said shortages in foster care “have resulted in Nottingham city’s continued use of unregistered children’s homes.”

Ofsted says unregistered children’s homes are illegal, and anyone providing unregistered accommodation is committing an offence.

Despite this, it says it has seen a “concerning rise” in local authorities using unregistered homes nationally.

As of July last year, 15 children had been placed in an unregistered setting by the authority.

This has since been reduced to below five.

A response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, submitted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, now shows millions of pounds have been spent placing children in unregistered settings.

In 2022/23 the council spent over £2.171m, rising to £7.3m the following year in 2023/24.

In the current year, which began April 2024, figures show the authority spent £5.523m, bringing the total spend over the last three years to just under £15m.

The average cost of placing a single child in an unregistered setting was £672,780, the figures further show.

The council previously said children are only placed in unregistered homes if they cannot safely live at home, they have no extended family, or if there is no suitable children’s home or foster placement anywhere locally, regionally and – as a last resort – the wider country.

Terry Galloway, a campaigner for children in care and care leavers, and provider of supported accommodation, said: “It’s heart-breaking to hear children are still being placed in unregulated children’s homes in Nottingham.

“This is happening up and down the country. These children are some of the most vulnerable in society, care experienced people are 70 per cent more likely to die prematurely than any other group.

“The only way this is going to change is if we get the right people in the room to problem solve the sufficiency issues councils like Nottingham experience on a daily basis.”

In a recent study, published in November, Ofsted said there has been a steady increase in potential unregistered homes.

In the 12 months to the end of March last year, there were around 931 homes of this kind across the country.

For the same 12-month period ending in March 2022, the same number published by Ofsted was 315.

In the East Midlands region the number of homes as of last March was 131, but the watchdog added: “Local authorities are not legally obliged to tell us when they place children in unregistered children’s homes, so these numbers are not exact.

“We suspect there will be more children living in unregistered children’s homes that we are not aware of.”

Ailsa Barr, director of children’s integrated services at the council, previously said: “We do have a very small number in unregistered children’s homes, as do many local authorities in the country.

“We do have for those children in those circumstances extra management oversight, extra social worker oversight, and we have reduced the number of children in those arrangements in the last 12 months.

“We have reduced by more than 50 per cent the number. For context we are talking about less than five children. So we have already reduced that are we are continuing to reduce that.”

In November last year the Labour Government said it would “embark on major reform to end years of neglect of the children’s social care support system”.

These reforms include handing Ofsted extra powers to issue private providers, including those running unregistered homes, with civil fines to “deter unscrupulous behaviour”.

It accused some providers of “siphoning off money that should be going towards vulnerable children”.

Bridget Phillipson, Education Secretary, said: “We will crack down on care providers making excessive profit, tackle unregistered and unsafe provision, and ensure earlier intervention to keep families together and help children to thrive.”

Sir Martyn Oliver, Ofsted’s Chief Inspector, added: “These new powers will allow Ofsted to do more to make sure all children’s homes are safe and nurturing places, and to combat illegal and poor-quality homes quickly and effectively.

“We welcome these reforms and stand ready to deliver the Government’s new asks as soon as possible.”

The council’s children’s services will undergo a final Ofsted inspection later this year.