Official Statistics Release

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Volume and Capacity

Residential Special Schools (RSS) where children reside for more than 295 days are designated as children’s homes and are regulated and inspected as such. Therefore, the following discussion of children’s homes largely includes Residential Special Schools where children reside for more than 295 days, unless explicitly stated otherwise. Where we have referred to RSS in this section, we are always referring to those where children reside for more than 295 days.

There were 1,950 children’s homes (excluding RSS), of which approximately 1,629 had at least one child in placement as at 31 March 2013. Therefore, there were 321 active children’s homes with no children in placement on this date. Similarly, there were 84 active Residential Special Schools with children for more than 295 days, of which 75 had at least one child in placement on this date.

There were 6,141 children placed in children’s homes (including RSS) as at 31 March 2013. The total number of places available in children’s homes and RSS was 11,509. Therefore, there were 5,456 places unfilled as at 31 March 2013. Approximately 2,000 of these places (both available and unfilled) were in Residential Special Schools.

The proportion of unfilled children’s home places (including RSS) was 47%. This was the position on the day in question and is not necessarily an indication of the situation the day before, or the day after, or any other day. Children’s homes places may be unfilled for a variety of good reasons including that some places were not available for use, or that the homes often provide very specialised care to meet particular needs, for which demand on the day in question was not required. It should also be noted that the inclusion of the RSS places figure greatly inflates this proportion, as “available places” for these children’s homes includes the maximum possible number of children that can be looked after, which is rarely expected to be achieved in such homes.

Regionally, the South West had the highest proportion of unfilled children’s home places at 60%, however this proportion is inflated by a high number of RSS places available in this region. London, on the other hand, had no Residential Special Schools and so all of its unfilled places were in children’s homes (54% unfilled). Local authorities in London placed 795 children in children’s homes and 326 of these (41%) were placed more than 50 miles from their local authority boundary. This should not, however, be taken as an indication of poor commissioning; it suggests that local authorities in London placed children in children’s homes outside of London for reasons likely to be specific to the needs of the children. The North East and North West regions had the lowest proportion of unfilled children’s home places, including RSS, both at 41%.

Table 3: Places in active providers, as at 31 March 2013

As part of the data collection, we asked local authorities to omit placements for children in respite care only. However, of all 6,141 children placed in children’s homes, 62 local authorities reported having placed 183 children in 76 children’s homes that we understand to be short-breaks or respite-only. Nearly one third of these children had been in their placement for more than two years (56 children), while 21% (38 children) had been in their placement for less than three months. It is not clear if this is an issue of data accuracy.

There were 454 active fostering services: 152 local authority-run and 302 Independent Fostering Services. Of these, 425 had at least one child in placement as at 31 March 2013. Four local authorities and 25 Independent Fostering Services had no children in placement at this date.

There were 76,210 approved foster places in England, of which 50,504 were filled. There were 25,706 unfilled foster places as at 31 March 2013. Unfilled foster places include those that are currently unavailable. There are many reasons why approved places may be unavailable at any given time. For example, sickness or bereavement or situations where carers approved for more than one placement may have a child already fostered with whom it would not be appropriate to place another.

As at 31 March 2013, each local authority had children placed within their boundary from an average of 27 other local authorities, although the number ranged from six LAs placing in Redcar & Cleveland to 85 LAs placing children in Kent.

Around one fifth (19%) of LAs had children living there from 40 or more other local authorities. As might be expected, most of the recipient local authorities were large shire counties but there were some exceptions to this. For example, 475 children were placed in Croydon from 40 different authorities, the vast majority from other London boroughs.

There were over 600 different private and voluntary organisations looking after over 23,000 children at the end of March 2013. There is huge variation in the size and scope of these organisations, from small private organisations looking after one or two children in children’s homes to large organisations looking after several hundred children through children’s home, adoption and fostering providers. As such, organisations may have several registrations each.

There were 57 larger private and voluntary organisations that owned a service in more than one provider type. Two thirds (38) of these owned both children’s homes and fostering services. A further nine organisations owned children’s homes, fostering and adoption services. 94. The 57 organisations looked after 6,385 children at the end of March, or 9% of all children looked after.

Over 550 organisations (563) looked after children with just one service; a total of 14,007 children (21%).

There were 412 separate private and voluntary-run organisations looking after a total of 4,299 children in children’s homes. At 31 March 2013, just under one quarter of these organisations looked after one or two children, and one third looked after between three and five children, across all their individual registrations.

The largest 20 organisations looked after a total of over 1,700 children, almost two fifths (39%) of all children in private and voluntary children’s homes. Of that group, five organisations looked after almost 900 children. Sixteen of the largest 20 organisations were private and four were voluntary.

There were 170 separate organisations that owned 281 Independent Fostering Services. These looked after a total of 15,533 children as at 31 March 2013. Most of these children (86%) were looked after by privately-run Independent Fostering Services and 14% by voluntary-run services.

A little under half (7,490) of all children looked after by Independent Fostering Services were looked after by just ten organisations, operating through the 58 services that they owned. All but one of these services was privately owned.

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