Retrospective outrage is no way to run the children’s care system
The subnarratives of profit-making and the preponderance of homes in the North West of England also apply equally to this sector: 87% of supported accommodation for children in care aged 16 and 17 is run for profit (slightly higher than for children’s homes), and Ofsted reports a
‘pronounced disparity’ in where premises are located, with the largest proportion being in the North West where property is less expensive.
An investigation by the Children’s Commissioner for England found that
nearly 1 in 6 (16%) of 669 children believed to be living in illegal children’s homes on 1st September 2025 were actually in supported accommodation – where care cannot be legally provided.
The last government changed the law to create an age-based placement distinction for children in care. Gavin Williamson, the then Secretary of State, said he could not imagine any child aged 15 or under not needing care. The Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010 were duly amended to prohibit the use of supported accommodation for children below the age of 16.
The fiction is that supported accommodation is reserved for children who are able to manage with a high degree of independence and don’t need care. Since the time this sector was regulated, its use has increased with possibly as many as half of children in care aged 16 and 17 now living in accommodation where they are officially denied care.
It’s not plausible that each teenager living in supported accommodation has been individually assessed as not requiring care, since this would be extraordinary for any 16- or 17-year-old let alone a teenager who has endured abuse, neglect and/or other forms of trauma and disadvantage. (I've yet to hear of any teenagers of government ministers or directors of children's services being moved into “self-contained units” ahead of their final years of compulsory education to supposedly prepare for their early adult years.)
The full extent of illegal use of supported accommodation is not yet in the public domain. As sure as night follows day, this scandal will be acknowledged at the highest levels of government at some point. But children need protection now, in real time. Retrospective outrage is no way to run a care system for children.