Children's homes
Most children in care will go to foster homes - it's the closest thing to ordinary family life. But children's homes remain an option and 28% of children go there. Usually the number of young people in a children's home will be small - typically less than 10.
Generally children will be sent to a children's home rather than a foster placement if they are older than 14, or if there are behavioural issues that need addressing.
Failure to reach 'minimum standards'
The National Minimum Standards written in 2002 describe what should happen in children's homes. It includes everything from how to give medication to preventing bullying, offering good food, helping children protect treasured possessions, stay in touch with people and make good plans for the future. The authors optimistically write 'these standards are 'minimum' standards rather than best possible practice. Many homes will more than meet the national minimum standards and will aspire to exceed them in many ways'.
Actually the number of homes meeting more than 90% of the minimum standards is only 25% - with local authorities doing slightly worse than private homes. This needs to be fixed, but there's arguably a wider problem about how children can be treated. What are the main issues at the moment?
Children's homes and the law
Children's rights lawyer Mitchell Woolf says:
'The number of children who go into care with no criminal record but who come out of it with criminal records for damage to property, assaults on staff, being late and breaking curfew, is very large. By virtue of being in care these children are being given a criminal record - but no parent would report their children in most of these circumstances.'
A care home operator interviewed as part of a review by the Conservative party adds: ' I can understand the police's frustration. They haven't got time or resources to deal with broken windows and fights between children. We have to involve them because if we don't, we get penalised.'
Care homes have vastly improved since the '60s and '70s and the really dark stories of systematic abuse by staff in care homes are largely consigned to the past. Even so, a situation where the police, not a disappointed parent-figure, sort out problems is not providing the 'normal' atmosphere that children in care so badly need to absorb.
Training for staff
Staff in children's homes are often poorly paid and minimally trained. Lacking respect and recognition for the work they do, they don't always provide the support, boundaries and affection that children need. Better training and support is one answer. But The Who Cares? Trust believes that the work of residential home staff needs to be valued more, drawing in people who like and want to work with young people - and never people who are there because it is the only job they could find.
Disabled children
Disabled children have historically sometimes had a diffcult time in long-term residential homes, especially if they are there for more than a year and lose contact with their parents. The 2008 act says that local authorities now have to stay in touch with disabled children in a care home, and make sure their needs are being met.
More children's homes
Given the problems in some children's homes, it may seem odd to argue that there are not enough. But a good children's home, with committed staff and a proper family atmosphere can be better than foster care in some circumstances. As Delma Hughes of Siblings Together points out, brothers and sisters who are going into care have little chance of staying together if there are more than two in a family. Older children may be more comfortable in a space where the house rules are more general, and not tied to the preferences of a particular family.