MP calls for change as more than half of Rotherham's children in care live outside borough
Rother Valley MP Jake Richards says the current care system is no longer 'fit for purpose'
Last updated 18th Oct 2024
Rother Valley’s MP has tabled a bill to ensure that children in care are placed closer to home, as it was revealed that 55 per cent of children in Rotherham Council’s care have been placed outside of the borough.
Jake Richards said that the current care system is ‘not fit for purpose’, after figures revealed that in 2023, more than 20 per cent of children in care in England were living more than 20 miles from their homes,
While local authorities are legally required to provide care within their areas—known as the sufficiency duty—many children are still placed outside their local authority boundaries due to pressures on the system and a shortage of suitable homes.
In Rotherham, the situation is particularly dire, with 55 per cent of the 448 children under the council’s care residing outside the area. Alarmingly, 203 of these children were from other local authorities.
Mr Richard’s bill would require local councils and the Department of Education to share information about how well they are meeting their responsibility for children in care.
It would allow authorities to track how many children in care are placed in homes that aren’t suitable for them or are located more than 20 miles away from their families.
The bill was introduced on October 16, and a debate about it is expected to take place next year.
Mr Richards said: “Local authorities have an obligation to make sure children in care are found new homes within their local areas.
“However, with the financial pressures our councils face after 14 years of Conservative vandalism, this isn’t always the case.
“More and more children are being moved away from their homes, with profound consequences for their relationships and education.
“Quite simply, the current care system is not fit for purpose.
“My bill would make it a legal requirement for local authorities to collect and publish data about how many children are care are living in placements far from home, as well as their plans for providing sufficiency of placements to meet the needs of children in their area.
“We need this transparency to make sure children in care are not having their childhoods, relationships and education skewed by under the radar relocations to places miles away from home.”