Dame Rachel de Souza responds to the case of ‘Alice’, a young girl at risk of sexual exploitation placed in an illegal home and subjected to abuse by carers. The case was jointly reported by LBC and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
Alice’s case is a deeply distressing example of profound failures by systems and services intended to keep the most vulnerable children safe – the kind I have been warning about through my research into the use of illegal children’s homes.
She was known to be at serious risk of exploitation or abuse, and instead of care that diverted her from these risks and gave her new opportunities, she was sent hundreds of miles from home and from family, exposed to unimaginable harm and left in danger without the curiosity from the professionals involved in her care to step in and protect her.
Serious questions must be asked about how people with criminal histories were allowed to work with vulnerable children – and how this girl was allowed to be moved so frequently without anyone looking into why.
The widespread use of illegal homes is a stark example of what failure looks like – and Alice’s case is exactly why I used my powers as Children’s Commissioner to expose the use of illegal homes to accommodate hundreds of children a year.
My first report into the prevalence of illegal homes in 2024 found 775 children, some as young as two years old, living in illegal homes without checks on the quality or safety of the accommodation – and my most recent research published in January showed 669 children still living in these illegal placements. Nearly 90 of them were still in the same illegal home they were in when I carried out my first investigation.
Last year alone, the use of illegal homes cost local authorities an estimated £353 million for 669 children, with the number of individual placements costing £1 million rising – despite these settings being unable to provide safety or care.
These so-called homes operate without regulation or safeguards and can have devastating consequences on children’s lives. They are a consequence of a lack of good options dictating the quality of care given to a child with complex needs, and of private providers being able to charge local authorities a fortune for unregulated placements because they have nowhere else to place highly vulnerable children.
The government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, currently moving through its final stages in Parliament, is a chance to tackle this practice properly – by increasing the sanctions against providers operating illegally and purely for profit. Instead of spending such huge sums on costly – and often dangerous – crisis care, we should instead be investing in models of children’s social care that prioritise intervening earlier in their lives, keeping children closer to loved ones and ensuring they have stability and support.
Only then will children all over the country be able to go to bed at night surrounded by the love and care they deserve.
