Children's care system broken, says council chief

The chief of a council whose use of unregistered children's homes has contributed to a near £10m overspend has called the system "broken".

Last month a cross-party government spending watchdog found across England 800 vulnerable children were placed in illegal settings for an average of six months each last year.

Cambridgeshire County Council's chief executive Stephen Moir - whose authority can spend in excess of £20,000 a week on a single children's placement - said it uses a "very small number of unregulated" ones which are reviewed on a weekly basis.

A government spokesperson has previously said it had inherited a children's social care system "unable to meet the needs" of vulnerable children, but it was "taking action" to reform the sector.

Moir added: "We don't want to put any child in an unregulated placement, but we have to find a safe place for those individuals."

Such homes are not registered with or inspected by Ofsted - which is a criminal offence - but it can only issue warning letters to operators.

The Cambridgeshire authority's papers said its children's external placements budget was "forecasting a revised overspend of £9.4m".

"This is primarily driven by an increase in the number of young people requiring care, and limited availability of suitable and in county providers leading to higher numbers of young people in residential and unregistered placement," it said.

Speaking ahead of Tuesday's full council meeting where the budget will be discussed, Moir said it "talks to Ofsted on an ongoing basis about the use of those placements".

"This is not unique for Cambridgeshire.

"This is about a broken system in terms of children's residential care at a national level and this is about historic profiteering because governments previously have not stepped in to manage children's social care effectively."

He said some regulated settings will not accept children because of their complex needs, pointing to an "extreme case" where one child needed seven staff members on duty at the same time.

An Ofsted inspector said: "Too many children are being placed in unlawful settings, with insufficient oversight and where they're at risk of harm. The use of these placements must be stopped.

"At Ofsted, we are working hard to investigate unregistered providers and compel them to either register or close."

They added they were "hopeful" the measures in the upcoming Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill would allow them to act quicker.

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