“Worrying” number of children wrongly placed in supported accommodation as result of gaps in provision elsewhere, Ofsted social care chief warns

In a blog post published last week (22 August), she said that some of the children encountered through Ofsted inspections are “clearly in need of a higher level of care than supported accommodation is equipped to provide”.

Last year, the watchdog began registering providers of supported accommodation for looked after children and care leavers aged 16 to 17.

To operate legally, providers either needed to register, or have an application accepted by Ofsted as ‘complete’, by 28 October 2023. Nearly 800 providers met that deadline.

Yvette Stanley said: “Providers must be suitably registered in order to operate within the law and, most importantly, to have shown that they are properly equipped to meet children’s individual needs.

“If we believe a supported accommodation provider is either operating as an unregistered children’s home, or not providing the level of care that the child clearly needs, we will act.”

She noted that the high number of applications to register has, “to some extent, reduced earlier concerns about any resistance to regulation”.

However, she added that it “remains open to question” whether the number and nature of the applications “accurately reflects the need”.

She said: “The high (and growing) number of 16- and 17-year-olds in supported accommodation should give us all cause for concern that, as a result of gaps in provision elsewhere, too many children are being pushed towards an independence for which they are not properly prepared.”

Outlining Ofsted’s expectations for providers, Stanley warned that children should not be moving into supported accommodation if:

• they have high or complex needs
• their liberty is restricted
• they need a high level of ongoing care and supervision, possibly requiring high staffing levels
• they require help and support with personal care
• there is no realistic expectation for increased independence in the foreseeable future.

Acknowledging the pressures that local authorities are under to identify suitable placements for children, she said: “We continue to work with the government and colleagues throughout the sector to seek urgent solutions to the wider sufficiency difficulties.”

Lottie Winson