Bristol children in care housed in Manchester and Cornwall

Lack of sufficient housing on a national level has allowed the market to dictate costs

Bristol City Council is sending children to homes in places such as Manchester, Staffordshire and Cornwall.

Councillors heard an update on the issue during a meeting of the people scrutiny commission on 6 December.

A report presented to the committee said: "These children are those with the greatest trauma, often presenting with very high self-harm or with particularly challenging behaviour."

The council says it plans to increase the number of care spaces it offers.

It has a legal duty to look after children in care, who can no longer be looked after by their parents or family members.

According to the report, there were 752 children from Bristol in care as of October, with this number expected to increase.

The council has a legal duty to look after children in care, who can no longer be looked after by their parents or family members

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, over the past three years increasingly more children have been put in care homes 20 miles (32 km) or more away from Bristol.

That figure rose from 21% in 2020 to 25% in 2023, above the national average of 17%.

Lack of sufficient housing on a national level has allowed the market to dictate costs.

Reportedly, the "high levels of profit" made by companies managing children's homes was running up costs for the council.

Director of children and families at Bristol City Council, Fiona Tudge said: "Children are being placed further away due to the lack of local residential children's homes, which is not what we want for our children and is also much more costly for us."

The children and families service is forecast to overspend its £89m budget this year by £12m.

Over the next year and a half, the council intends to increase places in its own children's homes from 14 to 31.

The council also plans to open up two new children's homes.

One will provide places for children with mental health needs, to address the high number currently being hospitalised.

Another home will be for teenage boys with aggressive behaviour and experience of the criminal justice system.

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