It is incumbent on everyone with an interest in social policy to pay attention to the most vulnerable children and young people. When those who have been neglected, abused or exploited fall through the cracks in the welfare state because local councils are unable to meet their needs, this reflects poorly on wider society and risks causing harm in the long term as well as immediately. In England, the social care systems for children and adults are well known to be under immense strain. The rise in the number of children placed in unregistered settings – and thus effectively invisible to Ofsted – is an alarming symptom of a wider failure.
From 144 children in 2020-21, the figure multiplied to 680 in 2024-25, according to a timely report from the policy consultancy Public First. The finding mirrors one from the children’s commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, who recorded 669 such placements in September last year. While these numbers make up less than 1% of the more than 83,000 looked-after children in England, the rapid rise in the number of cases where councils cannot find proper provision is both alarming in itself – since no child should be living outside the regulatory framework – and because of what it reveals about how the overall sector is managing.
