Half of Peterborough children in care placed outside the city

Figures uncovered by the Peterborough Telegraph show that in 2020/21, 206 under-18s (51.6 per cent) were being accommodated in another area.

This continued a rising trend which saw 187 youngsters (45.7 per cent) placed outside of Peterborough in 2018/19.

Moreover, until recently one child had been placed by the council with a provider not registered with Ofsted despite it being illegal to operate a children’s home without the appropriate registration.

The council said this was due to “a lack of availability of other suitable registered provision and information from the provider that the registration process was close to completion”.

In addition, 26 children out of 399 are currently being housed in unregulated accommodation which do not meet the criteria of a children’s home and are thus not required to register with Ofsted.

Former children’s commissioner Anne Longfield told The Guardian earlier this year about unregulated accommodation: “The financial opportunity presented can attract entrants to the market that know little or nothing about the care of children with the upshot that, in some settings, children are not kept safe.”

She added that the placements were “completely unsuitable for their needs. Often this accommodation puts them at risk of abuse or exploitation”.

From September it will be illegal for councils to place under-16s in unregulated accommodation.

A Peterborough city council spokesperson said: “As a small unitary council many of our children count as being placed out of area even if they live just outside the city in Cambridgeshire or Lincolnshire.

“The vast majority of our children (around 80 per cent) live within 50 miles of the city. There is an acute shortage of placements for children in care nationally.

“On vary rare occasions we have had no choice but to use unregistered provision in the past, but this is very much an exception, and we have no children in this type of provision at the moment.

“We do place some young people in semi-independent placements that are not currently regulated but which we ensure meets our quality standards. This type of accommodation suits some young people very well, and we welcome the current review of regulations of this type of provision and of children’s homes that is currently taking place.

“We do need more foster carers, however, and if you think you could help a child in care to live in a loving home locally please think about fostering for Peterborough City Council: you will receive lots of support, training and receive a fee.

“Full details can be found at: https://www.peterborough.gov.uk/residents/fostering-and-adoption.”

Under the Children’s Act 1989, accommodation provided by local authorities for looked after children must be “within the local authority’s area” unless this is “not reasonably practicable,” according to the House of Commons Library.

It added that nationally, the number of looked after children placed outside their home local authority rose from 37 per cent of all placements to 41 per cent between 2010 and 2020.