Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 12
12
Local authorities resort to unregistered homes as last resort due to placement scarcity.
Conclusion
We asked the Association of Directors of Children’s Services how it could possibly be right for any local authority to place children in homes that are not inspected. It described this as a consequence of local authorities having an absolute duty to place young people who needed a home but in some cases no regulated placement being willing to take them. This leads to unregistered placements being the “slightly less unacceptable” of two unacceptable alternatives, the other being a child not having a placement at all.26 It told us that no local authority takes the decision of using an illegal home lightly and that they engage in additional quality assurance for these placements.27
Government Response
A response document is linked to this report, dated 1 April 2026. Response attribution to this conclusion has not been verified. Read the response document ↗