'Chaotic' children’s homes market and missing children

A disproportionately high number of children go missing from children’s homes

The Greater Manchester children’s homes market is 'chaotic' with half of local children who need to be cared for in a home being placed outside their own area.

At the same time a quarter of all children placed in children’s homes in Greater Manchester have come from other areas.

A disproportionately high number of children go missing from children’s homes putting them at risk of child sexual exploitation.

Ann Coffey MP has called for research to see if there was a connection between distant placements and increased likelihood of children going missing and to see if the local provision available is meeting the needs of Greater Manchester children.

She said commissioning of children’s homes in Greater Manchester should aim for a better understanding of why children go missing and whether out of area placements are a critical factor.

Figures prepared by GMP for ‘Real Voices - Are they being heard?’ revealed that 4,376 individual children under 18 in Greater Manchester went missing between January and November 14, 2016 generating 16,099 reports.

Of those 743 (17 per cent) were children looked after by the local authority, generating 7,689 reports – almost half of all incidents.

In financial year 2014/15, the ten local authorities in Greater Manchester were spending £66.6 million per annum on beds in registered children’s homes - £3,140 per child per week.

In March 2015 there was a total of 693 places in 182 registered children’s homes in Greater Manchester.

There were 400 children placed in those homes and half of them (200) placed by the ten Greater Manchester authorities were placed outside their home authority and a quarter were placed outside the Greater Manchester area altogether.

At the same time a quarter of the children (100) were placed in children’s homes from authorities outside Greater Manchester.

Ms Coffey said: “This begs the question about whether the provision in children’s homes in Greater Manchester is meeting the needs of Greater Manchester children."