By Vivienne Russell | 8 April 2014
Councils must step up their efforts to make sure the needs of looked-after children living far away from their family, friends and communities are met, Ofsted said today.
The education watchdog also called on central government to review the impact tougher regulations on children’s home providers and local authorities had made.
Around 8,000, or 12%, of looked-after children live more than 20 miles away from their home. While this was sometimes in a child’s best interest, in many cases it is driven by a shortage of sufficient carers closer to home.
‘Becoming looked-after is difficult enough for any young person, even more so when they move away from their family, friends and familiar surroundings to an unfamiliar place, without proper access to the help and support they so desperately need,’ said Debbie Jones, Ofsted’s national director for social care.
‘Given the serious risks sometimes associated with out-of-area placements, corporate parents must prioritise and understand the needs of this group – particularly as the numbers of looked-after children living out of the areas are only set to rise.’
In nearly half of the 92 cases tracked by Ofsted inspectors in today’s report, young people arrived in new areas without the right kind of specialist support, and poor information sharing between authorities had led to potentially damaging delays. In a third of cases, there had not been proper consideration of the quality of support and help on offer.
Jones said: ‘The delays for children and young people accessing the mental health support they need, often because of funding disputes between local authorities is frankly unacceptable, and should immediately be resolved as we have recommended.’
