Half of children’s home placements probed in a major study ended in a placement change within 12 months, with almost one in five ending in an unplanned move.
Provider requests to end placements because of concerns about a child’s behaviour were the most common reason for unplanned moves, which affected 19% of the 16,520 placements examined by researchers at Kingston University and the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) charity between 2019 and 2023.
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Instability had a compounding effect, with children more likely to experience further disruption if they had already experienced multiple moves, an unplanned ending to their previous placement or repeated periods in care, according to the report Improving stability and outcomes for children in children’s homes.
Unplanned moves were less common in local authority in-house and longer-established homes, while higher rates were associated in settings with high staff turnover, agency workers and a lack of a registered manager.
The research also found children’s homes can have a stabilising effect. Rates of placement change, school exclusion and going missing rose before children entered a children’s home.
After they moved in, placement changes and school exclusions fell immediately, while incidents of going missing declined more gradually.
Researchers found through interviews and focus groups that placements were thought to work best when staff were skilled and supported and “young people felt listened to and supported through transitions”.
The report adds: “Participants expressed concern that not all children’s staff have the skills and expertise to build relationships with the children placed there, keep them safe and support their development.”
Instability was linked to poorer longer-term outcomes. Among children’s home care leavers, 33% of those with the highest placement instability were predicted to be persistently out of education, employment or training, compared with 19% of those with the most stable care histories.
The report says market regulation and commissioning should monitor unplanned and provider-initiated placement endings, staff turnover, agency use, management vacancies and placement distance, as well as children’s stability and outcomes after leaving a home.
“A narrow focus on price or profit risks overlooking providers’ capacity to sustain relationships and respond to complexity,” states the report.
Longer-term investment and contracting could help providers retain staff and develop specialist expertise, while workforce reform should address qualifications, pay and conditions, management stability, training and supervision, it adds.
Moves into supported accommodation should not be automatic at 16 or 17, but based on young people’s individual readiness and needs, with transitions made gradually wherever possible, it adds.
“Improvement requires a whole-system approach,” the report states, calling for investment in the workforce, greater involvement of children in decisions about their care, better transition planning and more strategic commissioning.
