Children in care sent hundreds of miles away

Salma Raja said fostering children had been hugely rewarding

Some of Coventry's most vulnerable children have been moved to care homes hundreds of miles away from where they grew up, the BBC has found.

Of the 127 placements in care homes last year, 90 were based outside of the city.

Some children in care require specialist facilities, but the council admits too many children are living far away.

A Freedom of Information request by the BBC revealed that last year one child was placed 267 miles (430 km) away from Coventry.

Nor was it a one-off, with data for the past five years showing a similar picture.

Government guidance says children "should be placed as close to their existing family networks and support systems as is possible and appropriate".

Councils across England say there is a national shortage of suitable housing and foster parents for the rising number of children in care.

Many children are placed in private care homes that can cost £10,000 a week, with the bills putting already creaking council budgets under more pressure.

The Become charity, which supports children in care and care leavers, found more than 17,000 children were living more than 20 miles away from the people and places that matter to them each year - and that figure has been increasing annually for a decade.

Patricia Seaman is the councillor in charge of children's services in Coventry

Katharine Sacks-Jones, the CEO of Become, said the care system often created "further instability" in children’s lives by moving them around.

"As a society, we have a duty to give children in care the best start in life possible, and that’s not happening at the moment," Ms Sacks-Jones said.

The Department for Education (DfE) said the government’s reforms to children’s social care would "reduce the need for young people to be moved out of area".

A spokesperson said it was also investing £400m to help local areas develop their own children’s homes.

Placement cost £18k a week

Coventry City Council said its spending on housing children in care went £4m over budget last year.

The mounting cost of private care placements is one of the reasons the local authority is making cuts to services to plug an £20m hole in its budget this year.

The most expensive private placement last year cost £18,000 a week - almost £1m a year for a child in the council's care.

The Labour-run authority said the cost of private placements has increased by 57% in the past five years.

"This is a growing national problem,” said Patricia Seaman, the council's cabinet member for children's services.

"It's a market that’s broken and the government knows it’s broken."

The councillor said the rising cost of children’s care was "why the finances of so many councils are in such dire straits".

She suggested the cost of children’s care placements in private homes should be capped and hoped a future Labour government would look at the proposal.

Ms Seaman also accused private providers of "making huge profits out of the needs of vulnerable children and at the expense of the local taxpayer".

She said the care system needed urgent reform and investment.

In 2022, an independent review of children’s social care said “without a dramatic whole system reset”, outcomes would “remain stubbornly poor”.

Last year, the government set out its vision for reforming children's social care, which was backed by £200m of extra investment.

"Our ambitious children’s social care reforms will reduce the need for young people to be moved out of area, unless this is the right decision to protect them from risks such as violence or exploitation," a DfE spokesperson said.

Recruitment drive

In Coventry, the council said it was investing in five new care homes for children.

It is also aiming to recruit 35 new foster carers over the next 12 months.

However, with 700 foster carers needed in Coventry and only 192 currently on its books, there remains a huge shortfall.

The council hopes others will follow the example of Salma Raja, who has fostered 17 children over 10 years.

The first child she fostered was from London and she said he had difficulty adjusting to life at her home in Coventry.

Coventry City Council hopes to recruit 35 extra foster carers in the next year

"It was awful for him really," she said.

"He just wanted to sleep and eat. He just wanted to be back with his family, with his nan - but he couldn’t be."

The nursery teacher said with the right support, many of the children she cared for were able to reunite with their families.

It was a rewarding experience, she said, and urged anyone interested in becoming a foster parent to "go for it".

"When those children message you when they’ve left, or come to see you, or you bump into them when you’re out and about, it’s amazing," she said.

"It makes me feel like I’ve done a good job and they're flourishing.

"And they always know they’ve got another parent, another soul mum somewhere, and that’s me."