Bridget Phillipson has spoken of her anger over revelations of vulnerable children being placed in squalid homes including one youngster forced to live in a caravan at the cost of £75,000 for the taxpayer.
The education secretary has spoken to The Independent ahead of announcing a £53 million to create up to 200 high quality places for children in care to live.
The senior minister has vowed to end the practice of vulnerable children being sent to live in care in illegal homes including caravans and dirty bedsits.
She warned that the practice of sending children to “illegal accommodation” would be brought to an end.
It comes as the government has asked a commission to look at child poverty in the UK and is under pressure from Labour MPs to end the two child benefit cap.
But the issue of children in care has been described as a national scandal with many being sent to live in squalid conditions with under pressure councils struggling to find places.
Ms Phillipson told The Independent: “For too long, our most vulnerable children have been dismissed and forgotten, living in conditions that no child should ever experience from dirty bedsits to caravans.
“This government will never sidestep its duty to protect children, and I am determined to be the champion for those who need our help most and enable every child to achieve and thrive.”
She went on: “This goes beyond new beds in new homes. For the first time in a long time, the government is listening to the voices of the most marginalised, and is taking action to ensure that the right mental health support, therapy, care and nurture gives them the opportunities that the rest of us take for granted – to get on in life, and make something of themselves.
“Through our Plan for Change and over £2 billion investment over the course of this parliament we will rebalance children’s social care away from crisis intervention and towards early help, working in partnership with our brilliant social workers and professionals up and down the country.”
The new protections will come in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill which will include homes to offer therapy and care, and joining up health and social services to give troubled young people a fresh start in life.
It also comes as government commits to further increasing early intervention funding for councils – after already doubling it from £250 to £500 million
For the first time, the government has specifically targeted funding at children who have such complex needs that they are at risk of, or have been, deprived of their liberty.
Children in these situations need extra support from social workers and care teams to stop them running away from home and from harming themselves and others.
The new homes will break down barriers to opportunity by providing support for these young people’s complex behaviour and mental health needs in safe and stable environments.
A substantial shortage of placements to meet these young people’s needs over recent years has seen them being placed into accommodation that is operating illegally by not registering with Ofsted.
Data from the Children’s Commissioner shows this also comes at an eye-watering cost to councils, who spend an estimated £440 million a year on unregistered placements. Over 30 placements were costing over £1 million each - and this in a world where private providers sometimes siphon off over 20 per cent of placement costs for private profit.
One teenager with both special needs and mental health needs told the commissioner they had been living in a caravan for two months, at a cost of £75,000, out of her council area.
Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said: “This funding, and the social care provisions of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, is an opportunity to bring that to an end. It will increase the number of loving, safe homes for this group of children – whose needs are often urgent and complex – and must provide loving, therapeutic, joined-up care to help these children flourish.”
Chief executive at Action for Children Paul Carberry added: “It’s vital that children and young people with complex needs receive specialist, therapeutic care in a stable environment. Over recent years, too many children have been placed in unregulated, unsuitable accommodation due to the critical shortage of placements in the system, with sometimes devastating consequences on their health, safety, and wellbeing.
Case study:
Ethan is 16 years old and autistic. At the age of ten he was taken into care under Section 20 as his parents were unable to manage his challenging behaviour in the family home. Ethan had outbursts when he became emotionally dysregulated, which could be violent, including destruction of property, self-injurious behaviour and aggression towards others. Ethan experienced seven specialist residential settings; however, none of them could manage his needs, and he was subjected to repeated episodes of restraint and isolation, which caused trauma and negatively affected his mental health. This increased his risk of harm to himself and others, and the absence of a suitable setting, led to Ethan becoming subject to a deprivation of liberty order in a solo unregistered placement with authorisation for 4:1 supervision and the use of physical restraint when required.
Another child said of their unregistered placement: “It was just a horrible scruffy little council house. It was an emergency placement […] My bedroom light didn’t turn on, my door didn’t shut” – Child subject to deprivation of liberty order, 15.
One social worker expressed their frustration at trying to find a placement for a child currently awaiting discharge into the community under a deprivation of liberty order: "[The setting] want him out, and we want him out, but there is nowhere for him. I’ve talked to providers across the UK but there is nowhere for him. Providers come back to us saying they are worried he is a danger to others; they are worried about staffing; worried about the medication he is on; about the DOL – they don’t want to make the adaptations needed to keep him safe.”
Long road ahead to improve children’s social care, MPs warn
Government told to fully fund teacher pay rise to prevent school provision cuts
Schools ‘bridging gap in Government funding to provide free school meals’
‘Unclear’ how Labour’s pledge to recruit 6,500 teachers will address shortages
Starmer and Macron will join forces on nuclear deterrents
Former Tory chairman defects to Reform in blow to Kemi Badenoch
