A Parliamentary inquiry has fiercely criticised children’s care homes which, it claims, are too often not fit for purpose.
The homes, which house some of the most vulnerable youngsters in the country, cost in the region of £200,000 per child, but the report reveals that those who are in care are three times more likely to run away than those who live in a normal family environment and they are being placed in danger of physical and sexual abuse through failures in the system.
The report has been published in the wake of a grooming ring scandal in Lancashire which saw nine men jailed for the sexual abuse of girls and the report contains measures which, if implemented, may prevent similar scandals emerging. It says that there are currently barriers which prevent the police being told of the whereabouts of children’s homes in their area, which has to change, while it also calls for an end to “out of borough placements” which see some children sent to live in accommodation hundreds of miles away from their family home.
The report also wants to see a new system for reporting children who have run away from care. This is because there is a huge discrepancy in the figures the police and the Department for Education record, while it also calls for a “scorecard” to rate each council’s performance in protecting children in care who go missing.
