Tougher rules beckon on out of area placements in residential care reforms

A requirement for a senior local authority official to approve out of area placements that are a significant distance from a child’s home is among a package of government measures designed to overhaul children’s residential care.

Residential care homes will also be required to tell local authorities when children move into and out of the area.

Other reforms put out to consultation by the Department for Education include:

• Introducing new rules so that Ofsted only allows new homes to be opened in safe areas, run by competent providers;
• Requiring homes already open in less safe areas to demonstrate they can protect children. If they cannot, Ofsted will close them;
• Setting mandatory limits for staff working in children’s homes to achieve minimum qualifications;
• Publishing full inspection reports including ownership – unless it risks identifying children; and
• Setting out that homes must clearly indicate the type and level of provision they offer so they are equipped to meet the needs of the children placed with them.

The Department for Education has published three consultations looking at changes to the Care Planning Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010, the Children’s Home Regulations 2001 and the Care Standards Act 2000 (Registration) (England) Regulations 2010, and statutory guidance on children who run away or go missing from home or care.

The DfE said it was also working with Ofsted to “toughen up” its inspection and intervention powers, including through the replacement of the ‘adequate’ rating by ‘requires improvement’.

New rules will also be introduced giving an amber rating where a home is inadequate. If the home does not improve within a specified time, it will be handed a red rating and ordered to close.

The Government has also called on local authorities to review – within the next six months – how they work in relation to children going missing from care, to ensure they are in line with revised statutory guidance published today.

From September, Ofsted will inspect local authorities’ performance on meeting the statutory requirements to reduce the number of children who go missing from care.

Edward Timpson, Children and Families Minister, said: “For too long children’s residential care has been ignored – leading to unacceptable failings in the system. We’ve worked hard over the last year to identify the problems and are now taking strong action to tackle them.

“Children in care should expect the same standards that we would want for our own children. Our reforms will improve the quality of care and tackle the out-of-sight, out-of-mind culture and poor decision making, so vulnerable children are safe.”

Timpson claimed that the reforms would “shine a light” on where local authorities and care homes could do better.