Children’s residential care and the need for action

The Commons Select Committee on Education has recently published its report on residential children’s homes, following the UK government’s announcements about reform of children’s homes and their regulation, made in June of last year. The Committee believes the reform programme will improve and strengthen children’s residential care, but CareKnowledge editor Jim Kennedy has a number of remaining concerns about the sector: The reform programme was triggered by a number of factors, including revelations about poor standards of oversight in some children’s homes, the evidence and link to child sexual exploitation centred on children’s homes, and the problems associated with out-of-area placements,