Research and analysis

Use of unregulated and unregistered provision for children in care

Research to understand the increase in use of unregulated and unregistered provision for children in care and care leavers, and concerns about quality.

• From: Department for Education
• Published: 12 February 2020

Applies to England

Documents

Use of unregulated and unregistered provision for children in care

Ref: ISBN 978-1-83870-089-8, DFE-976

PDF, 528 KB, 58 pages

Details

This research was carried out to gain a better overall understanding of the issues around this type of provision and included:

• a review of DfE statistics on looked-after children (LAC) in England
• telephone interviews with Ofsted and local authorities (LAs)

In recent years, the use of unregulated and unregistered provision for LAC and care leavers has increased, but the reason hasn’t been fully understood.

Also, concerns have been raised about the quality of the care, support and safeguarding offered by some of the providers and the decisions being made by LAs in placing children in these settings.

We have also published:

• a consultation to gather your views on the use of independent and semi-independent provision
• statistics on looked-after children in independent or semi-independent placements

Published 12 February 2020