​Gov UK has released the accredited official statistics for children’s social care in England in 2024. The release contains information on the number of providers in the industry, the most recent inspections and outcomes and the number of places in supported accommodation.

Increases and decreases in providers across the sector

There has been a 17% increase from March 2023 in active or suspended children’s social care providers, with 4,453 registered in March 2024. It is suggested that this large increase can be partly attributed to the registration of supported accommodation providers, which were not regulated previously.

Our associate director, Mark Beaver, acknowledges the positive outcome of regulating supported accommodation providers:

"The unregulation of supported accommodation services was a timebomb waiting to go off. You never know what the industry will do when regulation is introduced. It is positive so many providers decided to take on the registration and continue to provide these extremely useful services to young people in care”

The largest increases came from residential family centres, which saw a 26% increase between March 2023 and March 2024. The second highest increase was in children’s homes of all types at 12%. This led to an increase of 7% in the potential capacity.

Residential special schools and residential holiday schemes for disabled children saw the largest decreases over the year, with a 9% and 8% decrease respectively.

Of the 3,491 children’s homes registered this year, there were 14,486 places. In the last 10 years, the number of children’s homes has increased by 70%, although the number of spaces available has only increased by 25%.

Children’s homes' private providers

From April 2023, supported accommodation providers in England registered with Ofsted. Supported accommodation is a service that allows 16- and 17-year-old looked after children and care leavers to live semi-independently. The latest statistics show that 90% of the 258 active supported accommodation providers are private. Local authorities only made up 3% of providers.

Supported accommodation providers are not the only service saturated by private companies. 71% of residential special schools registered as children’s home are ran by private companies. Since 2014, there has been a steady trend of residential schools registered as children’s homes decreasing. As of March 2024, there was a 2% decrease in the number of providers and a 4% decrease in the number of spaces since March 2023.

Private companies run 83% of children’s homes and provide 77% of places. Local authorities are falling behind, only running 13% and providing 16% of places. In the last 5 years, there has been a 70% increase in private-sector homes.

“The private sector is the largest provider of children’s services in the UK as expected. However, here at Charles Hunter Associates, we are speaking to more local authorities whose 5-year plans are to drastically increase their portfolios by opening large volumes of children’s homes to minimise the financial and practical reliance on private providers.” – Mark Beaver, Associate Director.

While local authorities were falling behind in providing supported accommodation, they were registered as running 12 of the 13 secure children’s homes this year. A charitable organisation runs the final secure children’s home.

Distribution of children’s homes across England

The distribution of children’s homes across the country is not even, with 25% (866) in the North West. The West Midlands and North East, Yorkshire and the Humber have the second and third highest with 16% and 15% respectively. The South West and London have the lowest percentage of children’s homes at 7% and 6% respectively.

All types of children’s home inspections

92% of children’s homes of all types had an inspection judgment as of March 2024. Of these homes, 83% were rated outstanding or good, an increase on the previous year.

The highest proportion of outstanding children’s homes were run by local authorities. 15% of the homes require improvement to be good, a decrease of 3% from the previous year. Only 2% of the homes were rated inadequate, the same percentage reported in March 2023.

While there are some positive findings in this report including the increase in numbers of all types of children’s homes, the pressure on the industry continues.

Final word from our Associate Director, Mark Beaver

“Private providers are necessary in this sector, removing them completely is not the answer. Some fantastic private providers offer care, support and education packages that the local authorities simply can’t due to cost or resources.

We will see an increase in the number of local authority homes opening over the next five years. There is hope the sector will find a balance that benefits the young people in the system, as they are the ones that truly affected by all change made at the top levels.”

Read the full report here.

At Charles Hunter Associates, we care about the current climate in the children’s social care sector. If you would like to discuss these findings, please reach out to Mark at mbeaver@charecruitment.com.