As the new government promises (18 November 2024) “a more secure life for children across the country”, and legislation that will transform the children’s care system, children’s rights campaigners urge it to end the wilful neglect of teenagers in care.
Publishing a timeline of legal and policy developments starting with the famous ‘Dobson letter’ of 1998, the #KeepCaringTo18 campaign shows how a previous strong, cross-party expectation that the children’s social care system would emulate family life was degraded by legal and policy developments over the past four years.
In 1998, the Labour Secretary of State for Health, Frank Dobson MP, then in charge of government policy relating to children in care, wrote to every council telling them: “your council has a legal and moral duty to try to provide the kind of loyal support that any good parents would give to their children”.
Successive governments subsequently introduced legislation and policy reforms making it increasingly difficult for local authorities to leave children fending for themselves in flats and bedsits from the age of 16. Until 2020, it was government policy that children this age should very rarely leave care, and those in care should receive nurturing and protection found in loving families. Against widespread opposition, the last government reversed this, introducing legislation in 2021 that encourages councils to house children in care aged 16 and 17 in properties where they receive no care – which campaigners describe as ‘care-less’ accommodation. Two of four official categories of care-less accommodation see children in care aged 16 and 17 housed in properties shared with adult strangers (no maximum age).
In 2019, 22% of children in care aged 16 and 17 lived in care-less accommodation. Latest statistics, published last week, appear to show that this has more than doubled to around 50%.
Former ministers also approved the use of ‘mobile or non-permanent’ accommodation such as tents, caravans and boats for this age group in exceptional circumstances, and designed a regulatory and inspection framework substantially weaker than the legal framework agreed in 2015 for children’s homes (where children are typically aged 14-15 years).
Ofsted reports that 90% of providers of care-less accommodation are profit-making. The Competitions and Markets Authority found that this is the most lucrative part of the children’s care system for business, with the largest companies raking in average profits of 36% in 2020 (equivalent to £330 per week per teenager in care).
The #KeepCaringTo18 campaign makes three recommendations:
- We call on the new government to urgently amend The Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 to make provision for homes specialising in the care of children aged 16 and 17. This would ensure every child in care who lives in a group-based, residential setting receives care where they live, and that the same legal safeguards are in place for children of all ages.
- The forthcoming Children’s Wellbeing Bill should include an explicit requirement that all children in care are provided with care where they live, just as happens in loving families.
- We further recommend the regulation of supported accommodation for adults who have left care.
