Council demands change after child service downgrade

Kent County Council (KCC) has written to the government demanding changes in the way resources are allocated, after its children's services were downgraded.

In its latest report published on Monday, the regulator Ofsted lowered the Reform UK-run authority's overall rating from Outstanding to Good, while the service it provides to care leavers has been rated as Requires Improvement.

In its letter to the secretaries of state for the Home Office, Education and Local Government, KCC said it was disproportionately affected by having to look after unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC), and other local authorities placing children in Kent.

The government has been approached for comment.

The authority said it now supported over 1,000 former UASC who have left care, and over 1,150 children placed with it by other local authorities, mostly from London.

The Ofsted report acknowledges this, saying: "Senior leaders ensure the same level of service for these children despite the additional pressures."

Council leader Linden Kemkaran said: "Kent is still caring for legacy, unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people who arrived here on our shores up to 10 years ago.

"Many of these young people remain in our care until the age of 25 due to delays in asylum decisions and the absence of any family or community networks.

"This is a perfect storm. Sustained high numbers of unaccompanied children, complex and delayed immigration processes and some of the highest housing costs in the country.

"No council, no matter how well run, can absorb this sustained underfunding indefinitely."

The council is asking the government to "secure the UK's borders", change the funding mechanism for out-of-area placements and strengthen housing legislation over children's homes.

But the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition Richard Streatfeild said improvements could be made using council funds and that it was the Reform administration that was "failing" in its outcomes for care leavers.

"This is a smoke screen for failure to be a good corporate parent by Reform," he said.

"We've known this problem is going to arrive because it arrived, as was demonstrated very aptly by the leader, over 10 years ago, and has been working its way slowly through this, through the system, and now we are faced with a particular bulge."

He said there were opportunities for Reform to raise taxes or save measures to fund it.

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