A "worrying" number of looked-after children and care leavers have been wrongly placed in supported accommodation, Ofsted's social care chief has warned.
Yvette Stanley said that inspectors had encountered young people who were "clearly in need of a higher level of care than supported accommodation is equipped to provide" in visits to the settings.
In a blog post published last week, the regulator's national director for social care added that, in some cases, supported accommodation providers were, in effect, operating as unregistered children's homes by straying outside the terms of their registration with Ofsted.
Previously unregulated placements
Supported accommodation is similar to what was previously referred to as semi-independent provision for looked-after children.However, unlike its predecessor, it is regulated when provided to 16- and 17-year-old children in care and care leavers. Providers, who have been required to register since October 2023, may not admit children under 16.
The introduction of regulation is the former Conservative government's chief response to longstanding concerns about the safety and suitability of provision for young people in what were unregulated settings, including the placement of some in barges, caravans or even tents.
Comparisons with children's home regulations
However, the new regulatory regime is relatively light touch, with Ofsted regulating providers as a whole, no mandatory qualifications requirements for registered managers or staff and organisations expected to meet four standards and deliver 'support', but not 'care'.By contrast, children’s homes are regulated at an individual service level, their registered managers and staff must have, or be working towards, defined qualifications, they must meet nine standards, and their core regulatory purpose is to deliver care, along with accommodation.
As a result, the reform was widely criticised by campaigners for looked-after children on the grounds that it created a "two-tier system" that left many 16- and 17-year-olds without the care they needed. They also warned that supported accommodation would become, in effect, the default, for older teenagers in care.
Their fears appear to have been at least partially borne out by Stanley's comments.
'Worrying' number of children wrongly placed
"Many providers are delivering well-targeted and appropriate support to young people who are ready for more independence and responsibility and do not require additional care," she said."But we are also encountering a worrying number of children who should not be in supported accommodation."
Stanley pointed to guidance on the 2023 supported accommodation regulations. which states that the setting caters for "children aged 16 and 17 who have relatively high or increasing levels of independence, who are ready to gain further skills in preparation for adult living, and who do not need or want the degree of care or type of environment provided in a children’s home or foster care".
While she said supported accommodation services who temporarily provided young people with 'care' when they needed it would not usually be straying outside the terms of their registration, some were going beyond this.
Services 'acting as unregistered children's homes'
"Increasingly, we have begun to hear the use of terms such as ‘higher needs support’ or ‘high support’, which stretch the parameters of supported accommodation too far," added Stanley."In some cases, it means that providers are operating unregistered children’s homes and that children are not getting the care they need from people who are suitably skilled and qualified."
She said that Ofsted expected supported accommodation providers not to admit children if:
- they had high or complex needs;
- their liberty was restricted;
- they needed a high level of ongoing care and supervision, possibly requiring high staffing levels;
- they required help and support with personal care;
- there was no realistic expectation for increased independence in the foreseeable future.
More providers than expected
While there had been concerns from council leaders that the regulation of supported accommodation would lead to a reduction in provision, Stanley said Ofsted had received "far more applications" to register than expected: more than 1,300 as of the beginning of July, with 400 providers now registered.She warned that the sector may have become too big in order to compensate for gaps in provision for looked-after children elsewhere.
"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," she added.
Ofsted 'will not hesitate' to act
Stanley warned that, where providers were breaching the terms of their registration, Ofsted would act.This could include supporting providers to become suitably registered, however, she added: "When we have immediate concerns for the safety and welfare of children, we will not hesitate to take more urgent and serious action."
Under the terms of Ofsted's enforcement policy, this could include imposing a condition prohibiting a supported accommodation provider from delivering a service at particular premises.
