Thousands of young people placed in council care more than 20 miles away from home, analysis shows

Thousands of young people have been placed in council care more than 20 miles away from home in the past year as local authorities struggle under the pressure of ballooning costs, new analysis shared with The Independent shows.

A third of children in council care in 2023 lived over 20 miles away from their local area, school and family - around 4,600 people in total. This is an 18 per cent increase since 2019.

An increasing number of young people are being placed in children’s residential homes, which have become crippling expensive for councils, as demand for foster carers is outstripping supply.

Research from the County Councils Network (CCN) estimates that it costs £300,000 a year on average to provide a care home placement for a child.

They said that the scarcity of available residential care placements means that councils are competing with each other over spots, and they often need to look further afield for places.

Children living further away from their local area would lead to disruption in schooling, difficulty keeping up with friends and less contact with their wider family, the report said.

Since 2019, the number of children and young people placed in care has risen by seven per cent - or 5,690 children. However, over this period, there has been a 45 per cent increase in young people being cared for in children’s homes and supported accommodation.

The CCN report projects that almost 10,000 more young people will end up in care by 2030, with the total number topping 93,000 across England.

Cllr Roger Gough, children’s services spokesperson for the CCN, said: “This report should act as a turning point for children’s services in England. It finds a system broken, with councils in the false economy of increasingly paying astronomical sums for placements and less on preventative services.

“But the biggest losers from the current system are young people themselves, with far too many children being placed many miles from home at a time when they are experiencing the trauma of being removed from their family.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “This report puts into sharp focus how vulnerable children across the country are being let down, placed far away from vital support networks, at massive financial cost to councils and human cost to young people’s lives.

"We’re already breaking down barriers to opportunity by investing to recruit more foster carers and kinship carers, as well as providing £400m to open more children’s homes where they’re most needed.

“For too long, the children’s social care system has been left to fester but we are now determined to deliver meaningful reform once and for all to deliver better life chances for some of the most vulnerable children in our country.”