The new Government is being urged to work more closely with
councils to tackle the crisis of unaccompanied children being
placed in hotels, with latest figures showing 14 children were
accommodated in hotels on their arrival every day during the
summer.
As council leaders meet at the National Children and Adult
Services Conference in Manchester this week, the Local Government
Association is calling on the Government to help councils to
develop more placements for unaccompanied children so that
children can be moved directly to their long-term homes.
This should be delivered alongside full funding in the Autumn
Statement of council costs to support children and a plan to
tackle social worker workforce shortages.
Councils have significant concerns over unaccompanied children
being accommodated in hotels by the Home Office – often without
informing the council ahead of time - and are doing all they can
to find suitable placements for these children.
Councils made 597 placements in the last six months for which is
data is available, compared to 136 in the same period the
previous year. This follows the National Transfer Scheme, which
moves children from where they are first identified to care
placements around the country, becoming mandatory for councils.
Despite these efforts, during July and September 2022, 1,322
children have been housed by the Home Office in hotels with the
average length of time spent in a hotel 16 days. As of 19
October, 222 young people who have been accommodated in hotels
were missing.
The LGA has long-warned of the increasing challenge of finding
appropriate homes for all children in care. The Competition and
Markets Authority earlier this year supported councils’ concerns,
describing the system of providing homes for children
“dysfunctional” and calling on the Government to provide more
support to improve the availability of good homes.
This wider challenge is inevitably impacting on the ability of
councils to support unaccompanied children.
To ensure that unaccompanied asylum-seeking children can quickly
be placed in their long-term homes, the LGA has set out a
four-point plan for how government should improve the current
system:-
- The Government should establish a pathfinder foster carer
recruitment campaign specifically for unaccompanied minors
- It should call on those who came forward for the Homes for
Ukraine scheme to consider providing supported lodgings for older
children.
- Councils should – as a last resort to avoid hotel use - also
be supported to establish reception and safe care services while
new placements are being developed and arrival numbers remain
high, to ensure that children live in child-centred, supportive
accommodation as their long-term homes are identified.
- Work to improve placement sufficiency for all children in
care should be swiftly progressed, including a review of the
regulations governing provision to ensure that these are fit for
purpose.
Cllr Louise Gittins, Chair of the LGA’s Children and Young People
Board, said:
“Councils don’t want to see any child placed in a hotel by
government, which is completely unsuitable for unaccompanied
children. It is deeply concerning and unacceptable that these
hotels, which were introduced as a short-term emergency measure,
remain in use, especially as the number of children going missing
from them continues to grow.
“Despite best efforts, recent changes to the National Transfer
Scheme have failed to address the challenges that are preventing
councils from placing every child as soon as they arrive. These
include a lack of placements, an underfunded system, significant
workforce shortages and challenges with age assessment.
“We urgently need a plan to tackle this crisis and to ensure
children can move quickly to their permanent placements. This
would mean children get swift access to the care and support they
need, after arriving in the UK following an extremely traumatic
journey.
“The forthcoming Autumn Statement is the ideal opportunity for
the Home Office to demonstrate commitment to making the scheme
work and ending the use of hotels by fully funding councils to
support unaccompanied children, including when they become care
leavers.”
Notes to editors
Latest figures show
between October 2021 and September 2022, 3,256 children have been
housed in hotels
