‘Flawed children in care statistics’ undermine council placement provision, warns regional body

“Flawed statistics” are undermining councils’ understanding of outcomes for children in care, meaning they are unable to judge whether they are securing the right kinds of provision.

That was the message from the South East Regional Care Co-operative (RCC) – one of two bodies set up to test the region-wide commissioning of placements – in a briefing paper on the data context for children in care services.

Like its counterpart in Greater Manchester, the South East RCC has been tasked by the Department for Education (DfE) with analysing care needs across the region and commissioning provision – including by establishing its own – to meet gaps, in the context of a nationwide shortages of placements.

In the briefing paper, the RCC, which is working on behalf of 18 authorities across the region, said existing statistics on the care system, produced by the DfE, did not enable it to answer key questions about the care that should be provided.

‘Flawed statistics’

For example, while DfE data showed the proportion of children placed outside their home authority, it did not cover the proportion of placements that were outside the region.

Data on children’s educational attainment or their self-reported mental health did not provide information on what they thought of the care they were receiving or about what their lives were like, the RCC added.

“From our placement statistics we don’t know how often we’re securing the kind of placement we ideally wanted to secure,” the briefing paper said.

“When we try to dig into the detail of any particular question, we find that our detailed statistics are flawed, because they look at such small numbers of children as to make changes statistically insignificant.”

Echoes of CMA report on sector

The findings echo those of the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) 2022 report on provision for looked-after children, which concluded that available data was insufficient to answer questions such as whether there was sufficient supply of specialised provision to meet a particular type of need in a particular location.

“One particular shortcoming is the lack of consistent data on whether the right type of placement in the right location was available or whether a placement was a second-best option,” said the CMA.

“We understand this information is collected within local authorities’ procurement tools but often not in a structured way that would allow analysis. This information would be vital for understanding how well local authorities are meeting their [duty to take steps to secure sufficient accommodation locally for children in their care].”

The RCCs in the South East and Greater Manchester are due to take responsibility for placements in their region from their member local authorities later this year.

Plan to roll out regional care co-operatives

Meanwhile, the government – through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill – is legislating to enable it to require two or more local authorities to set up RCCs, to take responsibility for functions including:

• Assessing current and future requirements for the accommodation of looked-after children.
• Producing strategies for meeting those requirements.
• Commissioning placements to meet the needs of looked-after children.
• Recruiting and supporting local authority foster carers.
• Developing, or facilitating the development of, new provision to accommodate looked-after children.