Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 8
8
Department lacks up-to-date information on children's care provision, demand, and available places.
Conclusion
The Children’s Commissioner told us that there needs to be a much tighter grip on the amount and type of provision needed and where.13 The Department lacks up-to-date information on the support children need, the demand for places and places available, to help local authorities make decisions.14 It recognises that many children are not in appropriate settings based on their needs with, for example, a proportion of children in residential care who should be in foster care. We asked the Department what it is doing to make sure that homes are appropriate for the needs of children. It told us that its policy agenda is geared to prevention and that it is having some success in keeping children within family settings.15