Police boss plea over unregulated children's homes
BBCA police chief has urged the government to introduce stricter controls after a rise in vulnerable children living in "unregistered and unregulated" children's homes.
Joy Allen, County Durham and Darlington's Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), warned some privately regulated facilities around the region were putting children at risk and impacting police resources.
At a panel on Monday, Allen said her concerns were sparked after hearing about a 15-year-old girl who was allegedly abused after being placed in an unregulated setting.
Secretary of State for Education, Bridget Phillipson, said she was committed to ending the use of unsafe, unregulated accommodation.
Allen described the situation as "horrific", adding that children from places as far away as Wales were being sent to County Durham, with the authorities unaware.
The Labour PCC wrote to Phillipson and MPs to raise concerns about the growing use of accommodation that falls outside the children's home regulatory framework.
While many of these settings are not required to register with Ofsted because they are intended for short-term placements of up to 28 days, concerns were raised over some children remaining for much longer periods.
Allen said County Durham's "relatively low housing costs" made the area attractive to providers from elsewhere in the country, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.
"Too often, local agencies are not made aware of these arrangements until something goes wrong - and police are called to respond," she said.
Unregulated accomodation
"It's quite horrific what's going on - there are vulnerable children in our communities, not being safeguarded as we want them to be," Allen said.
The intervention follows reports highlighting the scale of unregistered settings operating across England.
Under current legislation, registered children's homes are subject to Ofsted inspections, safeguarding requirements, recruitment checks and enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) vetting.
However, Allen said an increasing number of children were being placed in alternative forms of accommodation or emergency placements, where the same level of oversight may not apply.
Philippson, described such cases as "unspeakable evil" and said she was committed to tackling the problem.
