Committee chair Graham Stuart said that “measures to improve children’s homes should start with the development of a wider programme to improve stability around placements and a national strategy for care provision, based on better assessments of need where residential homes are seen a positive choice, rather than a last resort.”
The report urges the government to address children’s homes’ failure to comply with statutory guidance as part of its plans to reform the regulatory and inspection framework.
It also criticises the Department for Education (DfE) for its failure to provide the committee “with the responses received to its consultations in good time, without good reason” and calls for a “clear protocol to be established for the provision of such responses”.
A DfE spokesperson said: “This report rightly recognises that our reforms will strengthen the protection and well-being of children in residential care.
“We have been clear that children should only be placed out of area when it is in their best interest. We have already changed the rules so that any such decision must be approved by a senior council official.
“We have also increased transparency about the location and quality of children’s homes, and are working closely with Ofsted to improve inspection. Children’s homes, the police and councils are now working much more closely together when children are at risk of going missing.
“We have been clear in our evidence to the Committee that our ambitions do not end here, and we continue to work closely and tirelessly with councils and children’s homes to achieve the best outcomes for children in care."